Final
by dangerous-agent
Summary: Even though everything's changed... some things don't... I'm not going to lose you twice. -Vaughn
1. Default Chapter

From the roof of an apartment block, Sydney looked down. Vaughn stood a little way back by the door, fixing a metal wire securely to a hook protruding from the ground. He clipped the other end onto his belt and then pulled on it to check it was secure. He gave Sydney the thumbs upand walked over.  
  
"It should hold us" He said smiling at her. Sydney nodded, not returning the smile. He sighed, she was still mad at him because he was married. Their friendship would never be the same again.  
  
"Lets go then."She said, picking up her shoulder bag and swinging it onto her back. Vaughn was uncomfortable; they only had one rope and if they did two separate trips down it would take too long. He swallowed and then began to speak.   
  
"Syd. We only have one rope so you're going to have to come down with me." Sydney gave him a half smile.  
  
"Well done, Einstein." She laughed. "Come here then" Vaughn got closer to her and she pulled him into a sort of hug. Vaughn was stunned at first but then he understood. The pair walked slowly to the very edge and then jumped. They sped down, Sydney clinging onto Vaughn for dear life. Suddenly the fall stopped as Vaughn clamped the wire on his belt. They hung there for a while, swinging above the busy street below. Syd looked down and laughed nervously.  
  
"Aren't we meant to be inside there? Not dangling above the road?" She said, breathing hard.   
  
"Right." Vaughn said as if he had completely forgotten. He pulled a silenced PP7 gun out and put three holes in the window. It cracked and fell inwards.   
  
"Ok. Now we need to swing into the window. I'll let you go first so you have to be ready! Ready?" He said, swinging himself and Syd so they got closer and closer to the open window. On the fifth swing Sydney let go and flew into the room, tucking her head in and rolling over the glass. She got up and looked back at Vaughn who had managed to grab hold of the window sill and was unfastening the wire. She turned and looked around, a noise to her left made her bring out her gun. She held it in both hands and moved towards the direction of the noise. There was a fish tank in the centre of the room and she edged around it. A door stood open at the end of a corridor and she made her way down. A light came from inside the room and she became very wary. She tranfered her gun to her right hand and used her left to push the door open. To her surprise a huge man stood directly infront of her. Before she could shoot he had lifted his own gun and shot her, right under her bulletproof vest.  
  
She fell to the floor, dropping her gun. She out a hand to the bullet hole and felt blood oozing out. Moving carefully, Sydney propped herself against the wall and then relaxed. For some reason the pain had gone and she felt happy. The happiest she had done in almost two years. She was faintly aware of someone dropping to her side and shaking her but all she could do was smile.  
  
Vaughn jumped into the room. THere was no sign of Sydney anywhere but he wasn't worried, she could handle herself. He went straight to the door and turned back to face the room.  
  
"Six steps forward. One step to the left" HE recited in his head. He moved forwards and then to the left and came face to face with the wall. He looked around. "Guess this is it." He said aloud. He pulled out a hammer from his belt pocket and smashed the wall. HE tore away the plaster and hit the metal of the safe.  
  
"Yatzi!"He said. He fumbled in his pocket for a piece of paper was distracted when he suddenly heard a gunshot. "Syd!" He ran through the apartment and down a small corridor. He saw Sydney sitting against one of the walls and a body in the bathroom next to her. He ran to her and dropped onto his knees next to her.  
  
"Syd? SYd? Are you alright? Where were you hit?" HE asked, shaking her. SHe seemed completely out of it, with a crazy smile on her face. She had her hand over her lower stomach. When he tried to pry her hand away she screamed and this seemed to bring her back into reality. Her eyes, that had not been focusing on anything, suddenly fixed on Vaughn.  
  
"Vaughn? I couldn't react....he..he was too fast" She rasped. Vaughn held her in his arms.  
  
"Syd. Shh, don't worry. We'll get you out of here. I've already called a medic and back up. YOu'll be on missions again soon" He said. She saw the funny side and managed a laugh.  
  
"The CIA are always messing up my life," She breathed. "First of all when I went and you moved on........"There was an awkward silence "And now this?"  
  
"Its nothing Syd, just a glitch. I got to the safe and I just need to get the intel. Your gonna be fine, its just a scratch." He said, trying to smile. His head was full of thoughts, mainly that he had not told Syd he loved since she had returned but he desperately wanted to tell her so and that he couldn't stop thinking about her.  
  
"Vaughn......I......go and g...get the intel. I...I'll be.......O...K." She said, breathing slowly. Vaughn was reluctant to leave her side and she noticed. "Go!" She said, pushing him away. He climbed slowly to his feet and jogged back through the apartment back to the safe. He pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket and punched in the code, 479847. The safe beeped and the door swung open. Inside was a small lead box. He reached in and lifted it out carefully. There was something at the back of the safe, a small red light. He peered into and then backed away shocked. Stuffing the box into a bag he threw himself backwards onto the floor as the safe exploded.  
  
Vaughn awoke to feel searing heat on his face. He opened his eyes and saw flames leaoing from the gap in the wall where the safe had been.  
  
"Great. Flame thrower." He thought. His rolled over, out of the path of the flames and crawled back to Sydney. Once in the little corridor, the heat was lessened, but the whole apartment was lit up by the flames protruding from the wall. Syd was still propped up against the wall, her eyes closed, a dreamy expression on her face. Not what you would expect with someone who had just been shot. As he reached her he called out her name, no reply. He then checked for a pulse, it was there, not as strong as it should be but not weak. A good sign. Now she was unconcious he could check her wound. He pried her hand away and lifted up her top. There was not much blood and on closer examination Vaughn could see the end of a dart sticking cruelly out of her abdomen. She had been hit with a tranquiliser, but at such close range it was bound to have drawn blood. A wave of relief swept over him as he realised she would not die. Someone had known they were coming and had sent guards with tranqs. They didn't want to kill them, just take them prisoner. Vaughn thought for a while.  
  
"There must be a mole in the CIA." He thought. "How else would they know we were coming? Normally guards are manned with serious arsenal. Not tranqilisers."  
  
But that didn't matter at the moment. His main priority was to get himself and Syd out of there, to safety. Standing up, he grabbed one of Syd's arm and slung her over his shoulders, heading for the door. They were nearly half way across the apartment, in full view of the door when it flung open. A figure stood in the doorway. It was slim with long, shoulder-length hair. Probably a woman. Vaughn stared for a moment before seeing the woman raise an arm, and in the hand there was a gun. Vaughn's reactions slowed down. Before he could throw him and Syd out of the way she opened fire. For a second Vaughn was frozen in time, his feet stuck firmly to the soft carpet beneath him. Then everything rushed back to him. He threw Syd out of firing range and dove after her himself. Syd lay motionless on the floor as Vaughn groped for his gun. He coudldn't find it and when he looked up he saw it sitting in the middle of the apartment. He felt for Syd's gun, which he had neatly replaced in its holster. He checked that it was loaded and then clambered to his feet. He threw himself behind a chair and returned fire. At first it seemed that the woman was inviciable and then the final bullet in his round struck home, in the woman's left shoulder. She staggered backwards and her face was suddenly cast into the light. Vaughn looked at her in disbelief and then shook his head, blinking furiously. When he looked again the woman had disappeared. Vaughn sat stunned, unable to comprehend what he had just seen. He couldn't swear on it but he was sure that the woman firing at him had been Lauren, his own wife.   
  
When the backup CIA team finally came, Vaughn was still sitting behind the chair, staring into space. The sound of footsteps brought him back to his senses. He cocked his gun and aimed it at the door, when Weiss entered cautiously he lowered the gun and scrambled to his feet.   
  
"Where the hell have you been?" Vaughn said, hardly able to control his anger. "Syd was shot and if it had actually been a bullet she would be dead by now." Weiss looked at the floor.   
  
"Sorry, our calls were messed up. We have a secure line, it should be untapable but someone slowed down the call. We didn't get it until about five minutes ago and we got here as fast as we could." Vaughn didn't buy this at first but then he realised Weiss would telling the truth, he never lied anyway.   
  
"Ok, well you're here now. Syd was shot with a tranq, strong. She's been out cold for over half an hour. I had a face off with someone, I don't know who, they kept their face hidden. But I shot them and they ran. There is one dead guy round that corner, down the corridor in the bathroom. And that hole in the wall was where the safe was, I got the intel but the safe blew up, must have had motion sensors or something." Vaughn said, keeping the detail about seeing Lauren to himself. He would do his own investigation on that.  
  
"Ok. Thanks Vaughn. Go see the medics, you look terrible." Weiss said, looking at Vaughn ragged apearance, his clothes were slightly burnt, his face was sweaty, mixed with dirt. Vaughn smiled and walked out of the apartment to where the medics were treating Syd.  
  
BACK IN L.A.  
  
Syd and Vaughn sat in debrief. Dixon stood at the front of the room, going through what Vaughn had found in the safe, which was basically nothing. The whole thing was a set-up, although the intel had actually been there. Someone must have known that they were coming and had swapped the contents of the safe.  
  
"Great, I nearly got blown up for nothing." Vaughn muttered. Although Dixon did not here, he understood the tone of voice that Vaughn had used.  
  
"However, we did search the dead man and found this phone number which Marshall traced to a warehouse in Munich. Dixon motioned for Marshall to continue.   
  
"Well after I tracked down the number, which was easy cos I developed this new..programme called SafeFind which can find any number on the earth......" Dixon coughs. "Oh but...it seems that the warehouse is own by the same person who owned the apartment you two raided, which turned out to be very nice, had some good technoloy in one room." Off Dixon's stare. "The owner is a Mr. Doichanov, he used to work for a nuclear weapons facility that specialises in developing new and more dangerous nuclear weapons." Marshall stopped and Dixon stood up again, clicking a button and displaying a picture of the man on the big screen.  
  
"I believe he left because he had an offer for his expertise. It is believed that he now works for the Covenant, building them weapons that could take out a small country." He looked over at Syd and Vaughn, who both knew what was coming. "I would like you two to check out the warehouse, anything you find bring back here." Vaughn and Syd nodded and stood up. They exited the room, heading over to Marshall's office so he could get them up to date with the equipment they would be using. As they were crossing the hall Vaughn saw Lauren, who had been away on a mission for three days. He slowed down and let Syd walk ahead of his. Noticing he was gone Syd turned and saw him wandering over to Lauren. She frowned and carried on walking.  
  
Lauren spotted Vaughn walking over and smiled. He smiled back and came to a standstill in front of her.  
  
"Hey, how was your mission? He asked. She shrugged.  
  
"Wasn't anything good. Nothing like the adventures you and Syd go on." SHe grinned. "Listen, are you alright. When you called me the other day from your mission you sounded worried." She said in a concerned tone of voice.  
  
"Oh yeah." Vaughn said thinking back to being at the apartment. He had rung her after he had been checked out by the medics just to confirm his belief that it wasn't her there. "I'm fine, its just we were attacked and I wanted to make sure you were alright. I don't know why." He said. Lauren smiled and leaned in to kiss him. Sydney watched from Marshall's office, a look of disgust on her face. How could he even like her? Vaughn and Lauren parted with another kiss and then Vaughn resumed his journey to Marshall's office. As Syd watched Lauren go she saw that the woman's left shoulder was sagging slightly, like someone who had just been shot.  
  
Syd and Vaughn stood against a table in Marshall's office while he explained to them the equipment they would be using. He lifted a small bag of the table, it seemd empty but Marshall stuck his hand inside and then outstretched his finger. He then withdrew his hand from the bag and pushed his finger against the wall. He turned back to the table and picked up what looked like a PocketPal.  
  
"Now these beauties are my pride and joy. They look like nothing but if you would just care to look at the screen on this, "He said handing over the PocketPal and pressing a button on it. The screen was suddenly filled with an image of Syd and Vaughn standing and looking at a PocketPal. "you will see that the small thing I took from that bag was in fact a camera that is now recording you looking at the PocketPal which is showing you live feed of yourselves looking at the PocketPal from the tiny camera I placed on the wall over there." Syd and Vaughn were impressed. They placed the PocketPal back on the table and again turned their attention to Marshall.  
  
"All you need to do is stick your hand in here and try and get one of the small cameras to stick on your finger, you'll be able to feel it because it feels like a water droplet. And, um, once you have it on your finger you just press it onto the place where you want it and then video feed will start running straight to this PocketPal." He smiled and waved the small personal planner around. Syd and Vaughn looked at him expectantly.  
  
"Oh, ok I have something else. This camera which actually used to be my everyday camera, you know it took it to Washington DC when I went there, got some really nice pictures...but this um, you point it at whatever object you want, for example a nuclear weapon and the image will come up on our computers and we can search the weapon via the computer. Its also usefu if your in a rush, you know being shot at by scary security guys, you just snap snap away at documents or whatever and again the pictures go straight to our computer so in the event that you are killed, all your findings will still be on the computer." He said, hading the camera over to Syd who examined it.  
  
"Thanks Marshall." Vaughn said, he slid away from the table and left the room.  
  
"Thanks." Syd sasid. Marshall smiled and waved after them, until he realised that they were not waving back. He rubbed his hand on his forehead and then turned back to all his gadgets.  
  
MUNICH  
  
Syd and Vaughn crouched low by the tall chain link fence surrounding the group of warehouses.   
  
"What do you want to do? Smash and grab or stealth?" Vaughn asked, attempting to lighten the mood.   
  
"We can't just run in their Vaughn, God knows how many guards are surrounding the building. We could be shot in seconds." Sydney replied in a hostile tone. "Where's Lauren this week?" Vaughn was taken aback by the question. Normally Syd hated any mention of her name.  
  
"She's doing a recon mission in Switzerland." He replied "Why?" Syd shrugged.  
  
"Dunno, she doesn't seem to be around much any more." Syd replied, her eyes still fixed on the compound.  
  
Its like the annoying buzz in my ear has suddenly died. Syd thought.  
  
Vaughn frowned and then turned his attention back to the compound.  
  
"No sentries, no cameras. It looks like they aren't expecting visitors." Vaughn said, surveying the area.  
  
"Lets go then." Syd said, picking herself of the ground and walking the length of the fence. They reached a gate and Syd did a quick sweep for concealed weapons or cameras. Nothing. She reached inside the bag Marshall had given then and waited until she felt a small droplet of water on her finger. Once she had one of the tiny cameras she pressed her finger onto the edge of the gate. She then pulled out the PocketPall and turned it on. An image of the outside of the compound came into view. In the image she could see Vaughn staring at her intently, a strange look in his eyes. She knew the look. It was the same one he had had in his eyes when he pulled her aside at work, right before they took down SD-6. She shook herself free of all thoughts and turned to Vaughn.  
  
"Come on." She said, more gently than the tone she had been using before. Vaughn sensed the change but said nothing. They ran into the cover of a warehouse.  
  
"Which one was it?" Vaughn asked. Syd thought hard and then pointed at a slightly smaller warehouse than the rest.  
  
"That one." Vaughn looked puzzled.  
  
"How do you know?" He asked. Syd turned to him and showed him a piece of paper, it was the telephone number they had found on the man, the same one that was printed on the side of the warehouse: 47694 873047. Vaughn nodded and they cautiously began to creep towards the building.   
  
The inside of the warehouse was empty, cobwebs had formed in the corners and the crates that were stacked inside were covered in at least an inch of dust.  
  
"This place hasn't been used for years." Vaughn said, staring around the building.   
  
"Its definately the place. There's something we're missing." She said. She walked to one wall and placed her palm firmly against it. She then ran her hand along the whole wall, repeating the process along all the walls. On the back wall something was different. Syd ran her hand along but something caught her attention. There was a join in the wall. She traced the outline and found it to be a small box, embedded into the wall. She pressed inwards on the panel and it slid away revealing a code pad. Syd turned to Vaughn who immediately took a small grey object from his bag. It looked like the PocketPal but slightly smaller. He pulled a wire from the side of it and fed it into a small hole at the side of the pad. Numbers flashed up on the screen of the object Vaughn was holding. Finally it stopped at 497479522. Syd read the number and punched them into the key pad. Something hummed and the crates that were covered in dust suddenly moved to one side, revealing a dark staricase. Syd raised her eyebrows at Vaughn and began walking down them. As soon as she had disappeared into the darkness, Vaughn followed, pulling his Sword 9mm out of its holster.  
  
Sydney, still cautious, pulled a torch from her belt. She clicked it on and the beam showed a small, narrow corridor. The walls were tinged with an orange rusty colour, indicatating dampness. There were no lights, although there were spaces where lights would have been. She shone the beam around and saw a door. It was metal, solid, like the ones on a subramine, water tight in case of a direct hit of a torpedo or something. This too had started to rust, the bottom was the worst, the metal had completely flaked off. The door was made of steal, the centre plated with zinc to stop severe reactions to water. She sensed Vaughn behind her and felt grateful for his presence. She stretched a hand forwards and open the door. It was hard to move and Syd had to pull hard on it. It slowly moved, scraping the floor. She could see where it had been scaped before, the marks in the floor were fairly deep, signifying frequent use. The interior of the next room was not what Syd or Vaughn had expected. It was white and lit. Office tables were pushed against the walls and flat screen, state of the art, computers sat on the desks. The computers were still switched on, still logged into whatever programme the last person had been using.   
  
"What is this place?" Vaughn asked. Syd looked around, stunned at the sight before here. Whatever this place was it was seriousy, with some major funding. The far wall caught her attention. It had not been painted over and a huge symbol was painted on in fading black paint. It was the Nazi swastika.  
  
"This used to be a Nazi Second World War bunker. Probably one of Hitler's. Whatever the organization is that works here, thinks that the Nazi's were good. They left the original painting of the swastika on here. Whoever it is, I bet you they are in to mass murder." She said, sighing. Vaughn stared around as Syd took out the camera and snapped a picture of the symbol. Once she was sure she had got a good picture she turned to the computers.   
  
"Might as well get whatever information we can get." She said, slotting a disk into the computer. She began downloading the hard drive while Vaughn moved to the other computers. While she was waiting for the hard disk to download, Syd scrolled through the documents on the computer. As she zoomed down the list something jumped out at her. Scrolling back up she saw her name in bold. Feeling uneasy, she double clicked on the title and it opened up. A picture of her was the first thing on the page, then her bio. The information was from the CIA, it had been stored on their computers. She recognised it because of the little emblem in the corner and that fact that she had read it so many times since she had returned, because at the bottom was a small, final sentence.  
  
Sydney Bristow was killed in action.  
  
There were more pages to the document than just the CIA bio of her. The computer beeped, indicating that the download was complete and Syd was forced to close the document, it would be on the disk anyway. She then moved to the next computer, inserting a different disk this time.  
  
Once they were finished Vaughn and Syd stood for a while in the White Room, Syd took some more pictures of what she saw and then they head to the door. As they exited there was a small beep and a red light flashed on top of a CCTV camera.   
  
Lauren watched from the security booth in the bunker and Syd and Vaughn entered the room. The workers had left their computers on as instructed and Syd and Vaughn were lured into the trap. The door closed quietly behind them and they set to work downloading the information off the computer. Lauren swivelled round in her chair to face six burly men, each of them holding machine guns.   
  
"Make sure they are both dead. No one leaves the compound alive." She said. The guards nodded and went from the room. Seconds later they appeared on a screen positioned behind Lauren. Someone moved in the shadows and Sark stepped out.  
  
"You are really taking control. Why do you want them dead so urgently?" He asked, a cocky smiled on his face.   
  
"They are downloading precious information from our computers. If we let them escape our whole plan could be brought down." She said, her voice raising.  
  
"Dear Lauren. When will you learn. The whole idea is that they find out plans. Otherwise how else would we be able to set them up besides you doing more work as a mole inside the CIA." Lauren smiled at Sark's comment.  
  
"You're a genius." She said, and pulled him into a deep kiss. Sark was stunned by the kiss but still looked smug about it.  
  
Syd and Vaughn switched their torched back on, pulling the heavy door shut behind them. They slowly began to run down the corridor, time was running out. They rounded a corner and continued down that until the came to a big open room. Maps were spread across a large oak table. Pins were stuck into spots on the map. Upon closer inspection Syd saw that the pins were placed on London, LA, Berlin, Lisbon, Madrid, Paris and Moscow.   
  
"I think this is where they have moles, inside the country's intelligence agency." Vaughn came over and studied the map. He noticed a sheet of blue paper beneath it and pulled it out. It was the blue prints to the CIA Offices in LA, the MI6 Headquatres in London and all the other intelligence agency buildings in the major western countries and Russia.  
  
"Oh God. They're more dangerous than we thought." Vaughn said. He dropped the papers as he heard footsteps running along the corridor. The feet smacked down hard on the concrete floor. Syd and Vaughn ducked behind the table, their guns clamped firmly in their hands, as six huge men flew into the room. They stopped and look around. One of them put his hand to his ear, a look of strain on his face. He caught the other's attention and pointed his gun at the table where Syd and Vaughn were crouched. Vaughn looked up and saw a CCTV camera, someone was speaking to the huge guys, telling them exactly where Syd and Vaughn were. The men did not move however, but they all raised their machine guns and opened fire at exactly the same time. The noise was deafening. Syd immediately rolled to one side, to the shelter of a steel desk, the front was covered by a steel panel and she his underneath. Vaughn soon followed her. The panel in the front was keeping them from view but they could still see out. Bullets hole, left after some other confrontation, provided Syd with an excellent view of the men. One of the holes was eve big enough for the tip of the barrel of her gun. The men fired two or three more rounds at the table and then stopped. Everything went silent as the guards waited for the wood chippings and dust to settle again. Syd took this opportunity and pushed her gun through a hole, aiming straight for the nearest one's heart. He went down quickly, and before his friends knew what to do they too were lying dead on the floor. Syd swivelled her gun around and aimed at the CCTV camera; one shot and all that was left was some smoking wires.  
  
"We'd better get out of here before more of them come." Vaughn said. They came out from under the desk and ran from the room. They were unsure of the way they were meant to be going to get out but when they came to a dead end, their only option was through the door to the right. This door had been oiled properly and swang open with no difficulty. Inside were TV screens, all displaying images of the bunker they were in. They could see the computer room they had been in and one screen was fuzzy, the camera she had shot. Another door stood open a small fraction and Syd moved cautiously towards it whilst Vaughn sat down in the office chair in front of the screens. The chair was still warm, whoever had sat in it had been there recently. He examined the monitors, on one of them he could make out two figures running down a corridor. He enhanced the image and watched as the figures ran. He saw the gunfire on the screen before he heard it. Syd, who had gone out into the corridor, had seen the two people escaping and was shooting at them. Vaughn watched as one of them turned round, a gun clasped in their hand. He gasped as he watched Lauren take aim and fire at Syd, with Sark close behind. Then they disappeared through some doors. Vaughn sat in the chair, staring at the screen, he could still see Lauren in his mind shooting at Syd. Then he remembered that night in Doichanov's apartment, he had seen Lauren there too but refused to believe it. Now he had proof on tape. He heard Syd running back along the corridor and quickly ejected the tape from the machine. Syd burst into the room, panting.  
  
"Vaughn...I...it was Lauren." She said, looking sorry, yet truimphant.  
  
"I know." Vaughn said, his head lowered to the table. "I saw it all on CCTV." Syd had to let the joy of finding Lauren out to be evil pass. She crouched down beside Vaughn and put an arm around him.  
  
"I'm really sorry, Vaughn." She said in a comforting tone. Vaughn shook his head and turned to Syd, his eyes were red, tears forming in the corners.  
  
"Are you? Are you really? I'd have thought you'd be happy. You hate Lauren, I know it and she knows it. Do you now how much you hav hurt her?" He shouted at her.  
  
"Vaughn, you have to understand.." She began.  
  
"Understand what? You were missing for two years and you haven't yet adjusted to the changes in your life? I had to adjust to your death, Syd. Do you know what it feels like to have someone you love die?" He yelled, his eyes were wild. Syd bowed her head.  
  
"Yes." She said quietly. Vaughn suddenly realised what he had said. Of course she had experienced someone she loved dying. Danny.   
  
"Oh God, Syd I'm sorry. I don't know what came over me. I was angry and hurt. I am so sorry." He said. Syd raised her head brusing away the tears.  
  
"You had every right to say what you said." She stood up and headed for the door, disappearing once again into the corridor. Vaughn sat there for a while, unable to stop the tears. He soon recovered and gathered his things together, following Syd.   
  
LA, THREE WEEKS LATER  
  
Syd sat in her lounge, watching the Emmy Awards on her TV. She hated these kind of things. These actresses and actors did nothing for their country but they god pain millions and received awards and recognition. Yet she went out every day to make her country a safer place and all she got was two years of her life taken away from her. She was taken out of her thoughts by a knock at the door.  
  
"Oh come on, its a Sunday, leave me alone." She said to herself. She walked across the lounge towards the door, her bunny slippers sinking into the soft carpet. There was another knock at the door.  
  
"Yeah yeah. I'm coming." She shouted. She unlatched the door and let it swing inwards. Vaughn stood on the step, drenched in rain. Syd was shocked at his appearance.   
  
"Hey, can I come in?" He asked, water dripping into his eyes from his hair. Syd stepped aside.  
  
"Sure, I'll get a towel." She said. Vaughn stepped up into her house, his shoes squelched as he walked. Syd disappeared into a room and came back with a towel, some jeans and a shirt.  
  
"Here put these on. My...uh..friend left them the other day." Vaughn smiled, pretending to ignore the hesitation Syd had made about her 'friend'. He went into the bathroom that Syd pointed out and locked the door.  
  
Two minutes later Vaughn stood in the borrowed clothes, the towel around his neck. He went into the kitched and sat down on one of the wooden stools. Syd's head was buried in the fridge.  
  
"You want some food? Something to drink?" She said, putting various food and drinks on the worktop.   
  
"Um, you got any beer or something?" He asked. Syd backed out of the fridge holding two Budweiser bottles in her hand.  
  
"Here." She said, throwing one into Vaughn outstretched hands. He twisted the top and gulped down half the bottle as Syd looked on, impressed.  
  
"Why are you here anyway?" She asked, opening her own bottle with a bottle opener. Vaughn took another sip and then breathed in deeply.  
  
"Look, Syd. I am sorry for the way I have treated you since you came back. I didn't think about your feelings, you know, seeing me and Lauren together. I understand that to you it only feels like a couple of days since we were together." He said, his eyes boring straight into hers. "But, seeing her with Sark, I know what you were going through. I thought everything between us was alright but in fact she is with Sark and she had been betraying us. I suddenly realised how bad you must have been feeling." Syd looked away from him but he turned her round to face him again. They stared into each other's eyes for what seemed an age before Vaughn leaned into kiss Syd. At first she did not resist and then pushed him away.  
  
"Vaughn, I can't be a rebound girl. You JUST found out that Lauren had betrayed you and if you hadn't found out then you wouldn't have come here. I think you should leave." She said, moving away from Vaughn. He bowed his head and sighed, he knew he had blown it with them, there was now no chance they would ever be together again. He followed Syd towards the door, grabbing his wet clothes from the arm of the sofa. Syd opened the door and handed him an umbrella.  
  
"Its wet out there." She said, smiling. Vaughn took the umbrella and walked through the open door. Syd closed it behind him and then leaned against it, letting the tears fall down her face. On the other side of the door, Vaughn too was leaning against it, hs eyes staring up at the darkened sky. He waited a few minutes, unfolded the umbrella and stepped out into the rain. Syd, feeling regret for turning him away, opened the door and rushed out into the rain. She looked up and down the street but Vaughn was nowhere to be seen.  
  
NEXT DAY AT CIA  
  
Vaughn, Syd, Jack, Weiss, Marshall and Dixon were all assembled in the briefing room. Dixon was pacing the room, agitated.  
  
"Last night a report came in that Sark and an accomplice had broken into a nuclear weapons factory outside Paris. We believe that the accomplice was former CIA operative, Lauren Reed. We think that she was working as a double agent, under orders to infiltrate the CIA and sabotage our missions." Vaughn looked uncomfortable and shifted in his chir.Dixon decided to move on. "It seemed that they were looking for the plans for a new plane that is being built there. The plane will be the first long distance unpiloted plane, excluding the German V-1 and V-2 bombs. Co-ordinates are typed into a computer inside the plane and it will fly straight to the destination. Normally it wouldn't be such a threat but this bomb is worse than anything. It contains, in itself, the largest nuclear bomb built, able to take out a small country, such as the United Kingdom. It is confirmed that the pair managed to get the plans and have started building the weapon. It is also believed that they have stolen sixteen nuclear cores. The prupose for this is unknown but we must assume that they are planning a huge terrorist attack."   
  
"What do you want us to do?" Syd asked, glancing across at Vaughn who was staring at the ground.   
  
"You will do nothing. There is no point going to the factory because the plans are long gone and the current whereabouts of Sark and Miss Reed are unknown. You might as well go home, I will have more information by the morning." Dixon gathered the documents on his table, put them into a folder which he put under one arm, and strolled out of the room, Marshall and Weiss in tow. Jack got up from his chair and crossed the room to Syd. Vaughn still sat at his own table, his eyes fixed on a spot on the floor.   
  
"Sydney, I have reason to believe that Lauren may have planted some sort of bomb in your house. I intercepted a call saying that the bomb had been planted. The call was unclear but I managed to get something else about the person paying. Lauren never liked you, so keep an eye out for odd things." He said. Syd smiled gratefully.  
  
"Thanks Dad." She hugged him and he left her and Vaughn alone. He had whole the whole conversation and was staring at Syd.  
  
"I can't believe she would try to kill you. She told me...she told me before the mission that she was starting to like you. She said.....you....were a good friend." He said, his voice cracking. Syd pulled a chair up beside him and sat down, patting him on the back. She didn't know what else to do. It was twice that he had lost someone he loved, she couldn't even start to think how he must be feeling. Vaughn took her hand and squeezed it.   
  
"Thanks Syd." He said.  
  
"For what?"   
  
"Just...for being here. I know you never liked Lauren or the fact that I was with her but.....you've been a good friend." He said. He stood up and walked out of the door.  
  
A good friend. Syd thought. She got up and followed him, planning on taking advantage of her free time. The shops of LA were calling.   
  
She caught up with Vaughn outside, he took the keys from his pocket and the lights of his car flashed. He pulled open the door, unaware of Syd, and climbed inside. Seconds later the engine had started. Syd, busying herself with opening her own car, sensed something was wrong. Call it her spidey-sense. She turned and saw as Vaughn's car pulled away from the space it was parked in. Everything seemed normal. She turned back to her car and opened the door. Suddenly, she was pushed against her car by a sudden explosion. She turned to see Vaughn's car making its way back down to earth. Sheilding herself from the flames that crept from the car, she made her way forwards to Vaughn's overturned car. The back was blown away, flame licking the jagged edges. On the bottom of the car Syd could see a large bomb, unexploded. People rushed from inside the building, but she paid no attention, immediately dropping to her knees and stretching her arm inside the car. Vaughn lay, upside down, on the roof of the jeep. Blood was trickling down his face, his eyes were scrunched up in pain.  
  
"Vaughn! Take my hand." She yelled. He turned his head and reached out his arm, grabbing Syd's hand. Once she was sure he had a firm grip on her hand she pulled him gently. He pushed his legs out behind him and slid out from the car. Syd pulled him to his feet and away from the smoking vehicle. Hoses were being directed at the flaming mass of twisted metal, attempting to put out the fire. Just then the second bomb detonated and Vaughn and Syd were thrown backwards, Syd landing on top of Vaughn. They lay there for a moment, staring into each others eyes before security guards rushed over, pulling them off the floor and to safety.   
  
Sark in an apartment opposite the CIA building. He watched as Syd and Vaughn were pulled to safety, a cruel smile appearing on his face.  
  
"Too bad. Our little friend Agent Vaughn survived. Helped to safety by his girlfriend." He chuckled. Behind him Lauren stormed over to the window, peering out at the scene below.  
  
"Dammit." She cursed softly. Sark turned to her, his face full of happiness.  
  
"Why do you want him, of all people, dead? You seem adament to kill him." He said, watching Lauren pace the apartment, muttering under her breath.  
  
"It's nothing. I just....I don't like him." Sark didn't buy it and laughed out loud. Lauren glared at him and he shut up.  
  
"You expect me to believe that?"  
  
"Its the truth, you have to believe it." She replied.  
  
"Lauren, you married the man. You can't say that you have no feelings for him...two months ago all you could talk about was him. Then Sydney came back." Lauren's eyes flashed with malice and they narrowed.He had struck a nerve. "You're jealous of Syd aren't you? You know that Vaughn loves Sydney way more than he ever loved you, or ever could love you."   
  
"Enough!" Lauren said, swinging her fist round. It collided with the side of Sark's face and he was thrown sideways. He untangled himself from the chair and turned to face her, one hand holding his cheek where blood was escaping from the corner of the mouth. He smiled.  
  
"You pack quite the punch. Almost like Sydney herself. I see you have been taking lessons." He smirked. Lauren gave him a digusted look and turned away. Sark sat, his face in his hand, laughing quietly to himself. He knew that Lauren's sensitive point was Vaughn and Sydney...and their relationship. Sark sat for a moment before standing up and leaving the apartment, watched by a curious Lauren.  
  
Sark stepped out onto the sunny street. No one noticed him and he observed the scene before him. Everyone was busy, running around putting out the fire or evacuating people from the premises. He laughed to himself and then began walking, crossing over to the over side of the road, where he would be in full view of everyone. He walked past a ambulance. Two people sat inside talking to each other while medics fussed around them. They did not notice him as he slowly walked past them, making his presence there obvious. When he had passed Syd looked up, she sensed something, like someone being close by but when she looked all she was were firemen and policemen. Shrugging she turned back to Vaughn.   
  
"How are you doing?" She asked, looking straight into his eyes. He smiled and waved his arm around. A bandage was strapped around the lower part and a red patch was slowly appearing.  
  
"It's as good as new." He laughed.   
  
"Good." There was awkward silence between the two before Syd broke it, clambering out of the ambulance. "I should see if they need any help or...something." Then she disappeared from Vaughn's sight. He sat back against the side of the vehicle and sighed.  
  
A paramedic climbed into the back of the ambulance and sat opposite him.   
  
"Girl troubles?" He said, busying himself with equipment. Vaughn was surprised that the paramedic was talking to him.  
  
"Huh? Oh...yeah. It's a complicated story." The paramedic stopped what he was doing and gave Vaughn his full attention.  
  
"I'm not doing anything important and other people's misery keeps me from thinking of my own. Spill the beans." He said, Vaughn felt uncomfortable talking to a complete stranger but what did he have to lose? He began retelling the whole of his and Sydney's relationship; from the moment they met, to just then as she had left the ambulance.  
  
Sark walked over to the nearest phonebox and slotted some coins into the machine. He then dialled a number, leaning against the glass frame, waiting for the person on the other end to pick up.   
  
"Hello?" Said the voice on the other end of the phone line.  
  
"It's Sark. The assination of Mr Vaughn went smoothly. He is dead. Blown up on impact." Sark said, drumming his fingers on the phone box.  
  
"That is good news. What about Miss Bristow? Any news on that subject?" The receiver asked. Sark sighed.  
  
"Did you not hear? Sydney Bristow was killed in a firefight two days ago. It was not our own doing but as long as she is gone right?" He chuckled to himself.   
  
"Yes. That is good." The man said. He then hung the phone up and Sark frowned.  
  
"What a rude man." He said to himself, stepping out of the phone box. He looked around and then smiled, ambling across the road and entering a cafe.  
  
Sydney and Vaughn had both been sent home after the attacks, 'just for some rest, I want you back tomorrow on the dot', Dixon had said. Vaughn had been planning a nice quiet day at home but Syd had intervened, hoping for a conversation with him, in private where they could talk properly and undisturbed. So they found themselves at a small restaurant, sitting at a table for two with a large candle burning in the centre, dripping down onto the woodwork that had obviously been subjected to one too many candles. A lone rose stood in a vase at the side of the table, just infront of the wine cooler that had been wheeled over.  
  
"Um..Vaughn." Syd started, watching Vaughn stuffing garlic bread into his mouth. He looked up, sauce dripping from his mouth. "I think that we need to talk about.....about our relationship." She stuttered. Vaughn swallowed his mouthful, his eyes widening. He thought Syd had given up on them, had resolved that they could never be together again.  
  
"Ahem....yeah." Was all Vaughn could say, he was more nervous than he had ever been in his life, even more nervous than he was on his wedding day; afraid that he was giving up on Syd too soon, that maybe more could be done to look into her death. He dared a look at Syd who seemed calm and composed.  
  
"I think that maybe.....maybe I was too harsh on you, for marrying Lauren, you know. And I think that I was too.....hasty to brush you off when you came to my house that day." She was cut off by a waiter coming over, holding two bowls of steaming hot soup. Syd's train of thought was cut off and she lost her nerve to keep talking. Instead she waited for the waiter to put her soup down and then dug into it. She could feel Vaughn watching her and slowly built up the courage to continue talking. "I would like....." But she could go no further. Vaughn, who had just spooned some soup into his mouth, suddenly began spluttering, holding his hand to his throat. Syd was stunned, momentarily braindead, then she jumped to her feet and rushed over to Vaughn, placing her hand on his back. She thumped hard, thinking that he was choking, but then he began frantically waving his arm around and Syd knew she was wrong. A group had gathered around the couple, watching Vaughn fighting for his life.   
  
"Call an ambulance for god's sake." She yelled, frustrated. A waiter rushed off to the reception and picked up the phone. Syd didn't know what to do, if he wasn't choking what else could have happened that would have this affect? Vaughn had gone a purplely colour and Syd was beginning to panic, without knowing what was happening she could not react. Luckily paramedics arrived a short time after the call had been made. They too attempted to removed any food caught in his throat and Syd had to explain to them that he was not choking. They could not do a proper procedure on his unless he was taken to a hospital so they quickly explained to Vaughn that he would need to try walking. He obliged them and the foursome made their way to the ambulance, gasps and whispers followed them out of the restaurant.  
  
Once in the hospital Syd was separated from Vaughn, made to wait in the relatives room until they had stabalised him. She had been sitting there for almost an hour when a female nurse, in blue scrubs, entered.  
  
"We have stabalised Mr Vaughn and you are free to see him now." The woman explained politely.   
  
"Thanks." Syd said, standing up quickly and following the woman through the hospital to Vaughn's room. Vaughn was propped up against pillows, his eyes fixed on the TV screen which was showing an ice hockey game. Syd smiled, thinking back to that day when he had taken her to the ice rink to play. He heard her moving and looked over. His eyes were red and he had green tinges around his mouth. He looked terrible. Syd tried to ignore his appearance, pulling up a chair and sitting down next to Vaughn's bed.   
  
"It was poison." He said cheerily. "Blown up and poisoned in the same day."   
  
"Vaughn, it's not funny." Syd said, immediately wiping the fake smile off Vaughn's face. He lowered his voice to just louder than a whisper.  
  
"I know it's not funny. Especially since it is my WIFE that is attempting my murder." Syd bowed her head briefly and then looked up again.  
  
"How can you be sure that it is Lauren?" She asked. She knew that it was probably Lauren doing these things, but for Vaughn's sake she wanted to make it easier.  
  
"She knows that I found out........"Vaughn stopped suddenly, realising he had said too much but this only caught Syd's attention.  
  
"Found out about what?" Vaughn looked away, unable to make eye contact. He was keeping something from her, something serious that was worth attempting your husband's murder over. Vaughn still said nothing, keeping his eyes on the floor.  
  
"Vaughn, your hiding something from me." Vaughn said nothing. "You have to tell me." He sat still, not moving. "Vaughn. Lauren has tried to kill you more than once. Sooner or later she will achieve her objective and you will be dead. If you tell me why she desperately wants you dead, then I can stop her killing you. It's your choice....life or death." Vaughn clenched his teeth, grinding them together. He eyes moved around the room, looking out of the window, staring out of the door into the hospital corridor. Then they settled on Syd.  
  
"Life." He said, his voice cracking. Syd looked relieved and relaxed a little. Vaughn brought his head level with Syd's a began talking. "Lauren had this safe, it was kept in the house. She would put stuff in it every night. NSC stuff she said, confidential, which was why it was in a safe. She told me that she trusted me never to tell anyone of the safe because all the live's in America depended upon the information in that safe being kept safe. You know me, I do what I'm told. I agreed, never doubting that my wife would be betraying me and my country. Then when I found out about Lauren being, you know, I....I wanted to keep some part of the old her, the Lauren I knew, alive. The safe was all that I could think of, it reminded me of her commitment to the job, always working. Now I know why she was always working...she was doing two jobs." He finished quietly, a slight smile on his face.  
  
"Do you know whether the safe is still there?" She asked, Vaughn nodded.   
  
IN VAUGHN AND LAUREN'S HOUSE  
  
Syd pulled the keys Vaughn had given her out of her pocket. She slot one into the keyhole but the door was already open. She pushed gently and the door swung inwards. Lauren was already here. Slowly, not making a sound, Syd crossed the lounge, towards Vaughn and Lauren's bedroom, pulling a gun out from behind her jacket as she moved. There was movement inside the bedroom. Cocking the gun, Syd pushed the door open and saw Lauren facing a wall, her hands moving quickly, unlocking the safe. She sensed Syd's movement and turned around, her own gun pointed straight at Sydney'd head.  
  
"Ah, Sydney. What a nice surprise. I had the feeling that Michael would tell you about the safe, especially after the third attempt on his life was made," SYd looked confused, she only knew of two attemptes, Lauren was quick to clear it up. "Oh, I tried to shoot him at Mr Doichanov's apartment, again I failed. It's like God's on his side of something." She laughed, still keeping her gun steady.   
  
"Put the gun down Lauren. You don't want to do this." Lauren gave Sydney a withering look.  
  
"Oh I think I really do." Instead of shooting Syd, Lauren dived at her, knocking her gun out of the way and in the process losing her own. Syd and Lauren hit the floor hard but both were up quickly. Lauren lunged at Syd again, lifting her leg off the ground, trying a roundhouse kick, aimed directly at the side of Syd's head. Such a blow would have been devastating but Syd blocked it, pushing Lauren's leg back towards the ground and using the woman's own momentum to flip her over. Lauren lay on the floor, winded, her hand stretching for the gun near her head. Syd wasn't stupid, her left hand clamped down hard on Lauren's hand while the other foot kicked the gun out of the way. The two were close to the safe now and with one foot still crushing Lauren's hand, Syd reached over to the safe, attempting to grab the contents. She felt Lauren tense beneath her, she knew that the blonde woman was about to kick her leg from under her. Syd had no choice, she quickly fished out a miniscule object from her bag and slapped it onto the side of the safe. Just then Lauren used her free hand to grab hold of Syd's leg and pulled it sharply backwards. Syd fell thundering to the ground, her head connecting with the floor with a great force. She lay sprawled on the ground, her head throbbing and her vision blurred. Her reactions were slowled down severly and all she could do was watch Lauren's blurred figure grabbed the small, lightwieght safe and run out of the room. Syd relaxed slightly and got to her feet groggily. Her head was spinning from hitting the floor and she had to keep her hand on the wall while she edged out of the house. Her car sat untouched in the driveway, a note pinned on the windscreen wipers. She plucked it out and read;  
  
I hope you and Michael have a nice life together.  
  
It was from Lauren. Syd blinked, the words blurring, merging into one another. She carefully opened the door to her car and climbed in, sitting on the seat for a while before her vision came back fully.  
  
BACK AT THE CIA  
  
Syd strolled into Dixon's office. He sat alone with a mug of steaming coffee, his head in his ahnds, pouring over files that were spread before him. Syd let the door bang shut after her and Dixon looked up surprised.  
  
"Sydney, what have you got for me?" He said, expecting the information from the safe which Vaughn must have told me about. Syd waved her hands in the air, showing Dixon that she had no information and that she didn't really care.   
  
"I could have died again today. Same setting, in a house with a psychopathic former friend." She said angrily, rubbing the back of her head.   
  
"So you did not manage to get the intel then?" Dixon said, disappointed. He turned back to his files.  
  
"What did you want me to do? She had a gun, I was half unconcious on the ground. In fact, she was nice enough not to shoot me." Syd tried not to raise her voice but she was getting increasingly angry.   
  
"She?"Dixon asked, curiously.  
  
"Lauren. She was there for the same reason. She got the safe, I got some bruises. That's pretty much it." She explained. She could see Dixon's brain working, she knew that he was going to kick her out of his office soon, angry that she didn't get what he wanted. "But...I did manage to plant a tracking device so we know where the safe is and, most deifnately, where Lauren and Sark are." Her voice was triumphant but Dixon just grunted.   
  
"Good, go to Marshall. He'll know how to track them down." Syd lingered for a moment, hoping that Dixon would say something more but he was concentrating on his files again and barely noticed she was there.  
  
"Right." Syd said quietly. She left Dixon staring after her, a concerned expression on his face.  
  
Marshall was sitting in his office fiddling with a small metal object.   
  
"Hi." Syd said, after watching Marshall play with his toy for a while. He jumped and the metal object flew high into the air, Syd extened an arm and caught it. She uncurled her fist and looked at the mass of metal and wires.  
  
"What is this?" She asked incredulously. Marshall looked hurt and quickly grabbed the object.  
  
"It's a spytoy. It acts like..you know a fly on the wall, sitting there just lalalal, um...and records all the conversation as well as sending it straight back to my computer. It's still not ready because when it gets to a certain point it....well it blows up and during a mission you wouldn't really want this to happen...for obvious reasons." He chuckled to himself and Syd gave him a small, confused smile. "It's also got video feed.....so you can get visual pictures of whoever your talking to..but.." He trailed off, turning the 'spytoy' round and round in his hands.   
  
"I came here to ask you if you can track someone down. The tracker used was one of yours." Marshall was disappointed that Syd wasn't paying more attention to his gadget but business was business.  
  
"Do you know what model? I made quite a few." Syd shook her head. How was she meant to know what model it was? To her it was a piece of metal with wires inside that helped her do her job.  
  
"Well the good thing is that I spray all my trackers with solinium so all I need to do is search for hotspots of solinium and then you will know where your person is." Marshall winked. "Good to have a back up plan." Syd nodded, not bothering to reply. Marshall took the hint and frantically began typing information into his computer. A black map of the world suddenly popped up onto the screen and Syd could see a tiny yellow/red patch on England. Marshall had already noticed it and was magnifying the map so they could find out exactly where abouts in England it was. Syd watched as Marshall slowly began to identify the location of the safe. Eventually he stopped, in the corner of the screen there were two words; Coventry, England.  
  
"There you go. Coventry in England. You know if you go they have this catherdral that was bombed but then a cross remained and it's really a nice place to go......" Marshall turned to find Syd gone. "....apparently."  
  
BRIEFING ROOM  
  
Dixon was again pacing the room. Syd, Vaughn, Weiss and Marshall were sitting watching him.   
  
"The safe that Sydney was meant to retrieve has been tracked to Conventry in England. After extensive tracking we narrowed the area that it might be down to a three square miles which is mostly occupied by warehouses which is where it is likely to be." Said Dixon. An aerial view of part of Coventry appeared on everyone's screens.   
  
"I am sending Agents Bristow, Weiss," Vaughn looked over at Syd, disappointed. "and Agent Vaughn. Marshall will go through OpTech with you. You leave in an hour." Dixon strolled out of the room.   
  
"The jet set life of CIA Agents." Weiss joked. Syd broke her stony glare into a smile. Marshall stood up and took Dixon's position at the front of the room.  
  
"The complex has easy access. Obviously they don't think anyone is going to come in otherwise you know they would have put cameras, mounted machine guns and guards out there to kill you as soon as you entered the complex....which is just as well. Once inside the complex things get a bit more difficult. There are motion sensor cameras positioned at almost every corner of the complex and its huge so really there are quite a few corners and a camera at each of those....I'd say roughly...50 cameras maybe. Anyway this is an EMP gun, EMP meaning Electro Magnetic Pulse, which you probably already knew, cos you know it was used in the Matrix. They were in their....ship thing and Neo was in the Matrix and they couldn't bring him back fast enough and the robot squid things were attacking their ship and it was getting really frantic and in the end they just had to use the EMP to get rid of them, although it would kill Neo cos he was in the Matrix. Drama. So they pressed the button and the things were destroyed....Neo was back in the real world and everyone lived happily ever after. It's just amazing that film...the effects and everything..I wish I could have seen...... Anyway, shoot this at the camera and the magnetic waves should make it confused and it will stop working all together. There is also a key pad at every door. Now we couldn't get the key card because there isn't one, you have to use your finger prints and then type in a code that matches your fingerprints. Its really very good. You know if someone wants to breank in then you know they cut off a security guards hand to get themselves in but that won't work because each set of fingerprints has its own recognition code so you're going to need this. Now to overcome this problem you get the security guards hand, obviously don't bothered severing it cos it will get bloody. Anyway put the hand onto this plasma screen and the prints will be sent back to me and I will find the code. Meanwhile inside this. " He said, opening the object. "The prints from the guards hand will be moulded onto these little things that are like contact lenses. You stick them on your fingertips and then place your hand in the keypad and type in the code I will have provided. Foil-proof."  
  
"And you've jinxed it." Weiss muttered. Marshall frowned and then turned back to Syd and Vaughn grinning at his own excellence.   
  
"Great then. We leave in an hour. We better get ready." Weiss stood up and he and Marshall left the room together. Syd was close behind when she felt an arm grab her own. She was so used to be attacked now that she immediately spun round with a curled fist and whacked Vaughn straight in the face. He stumbled back as Syd realised who she had hit.  
  
"Oh God, sorry, heat of passion." She said, grinning as Vaughn clutched his face. When he looked up she tried to disguise her amusement.   
  
"You're laughing at me." He said in mock anger. Syd couldn't help it any more. She burst out laughing, nearly falling to the floor.  
  
"It's just....you looked so funny...standing there...your face....it's just......." She managed a few words attempting to string together a sentence but she was laughing too hard. Vaughn looked at her incredulously but eventually had to give in and started laughing alongside her. After a while they stopped laughing and Syd leaned in close to inspect the bruise emerging where she had hit Vaughn. She ran a hand down his cheek and then suddenly jerked it away.  
  
"I can't do this." She turned round and stalked out of the room. Vaughn stood watching her, a look of utter amazement on his face.  
  
Coventry, England  
  
Syd, Vaughn and Weiss skirted the side of a huge factory, dressed all in black. Marshall had been right, there had been no cameras or guards in the outside fence of the complex and they had simply slipped through the main gate and ran towards the main building. 


	2. Chapter 2

Coventry, England  
  
Syd, Vaughn and Weiss skirted the side of a huge factory, dressed all in black. Marshall had been right, there had been no cameras or guards in the outside fence of the complex and they had simply slipped through the main gate and ran towards the main building. There were several small buildings surrounding the factory they were breaking into, and as they crept silently through the night, Syd kept her eyes wide open, searching for any activity. The group stopped in front of a huge metal grate.  
  
"This is entrance?" Vaughn asked looking at the grate. Weiss looked into a handheld PDA, displaying a map and nodded.  
  
"Yep, right coordinates. This is the entrance. Let's go." He said cheerfully.   
  
'How could he be cheerful at a time like this?' Syd and Vaughn thought. Weiss took a small, slender pole from his belt and turned the nozzle. A fine spray was coming from the pole and he placed it onto the grate. Weiss had sprayed a human sized hole in the grate but it looked no different. Syd and Vaughn waited patiently while Weiss then put away his equipment, took out his gun. Weiss, with his gun cocked in his hand, pushed the panel of metal and it fell inwards. He turned to Syd and Vaughn smiling.  
  
"Ta da. Work of a genius." He said, grinning. He turned to go through the hole but his eyes widened as his whole body jerked suddenly. He stumbled backwards, his face expressionless. Syd and Vaughn looked confused and pulled him away from the door they had made.  
  
"You alright? Have you been hit?" Weiss shook his head.  
  
"No I'm fine. Just, I got dizzy. You know, the heat of the mission." He grinned. Syd and Vaughn looked relieved and climbed through the whole. Once he was left alone, Weiss looked down at his hand that was cluthed to his side, blood was smeared over it, thickly. He wiped his hands on his clothes and followed Syd and Vaughn. It was dark inside and there was no one to be seen. Weiss knew Sark had been there, he had been the one who had shot him, but he said nothing. The sooner they got the safe and got out, the better. He followed Syd and Vaughn who were picking up the small metal box.   
  
"You need any help?" He asked, sidling over. They shook their heads.  
  
"Just keep a look out." Vaughn said. Weiss did as he was told and turned away from them, his gun still clamped tightly in his hand. His side was beginning to ache painfully and his head was groggy. Whenever he blinked his eyes would cloud over and it would take him a while to be able to see again.  
  
"I am not going to jeapordize this mission." He thought to himself. Gritting his teeth against the pain. He didn't notice anything until Vaughn and Syd shuffled past him holding the safe and motioned for him to follow. He walked behind them, still facing the inside of the factory. There was still no one about. It was as if they had wanted the safe to be taken. But that didn't matter right now. They had the safe and supposedly the intel contained in the safe. The mission was a success.   
  
A van was waiting outside the complex for the team. Syd and Vaughn loaded the safe into it and then climbed in. Weiss lifted his foot to climb in after them but it sent pain spasming around his body. He lowered his foot quickly, gasping for breath and clasping his side. Syd looked worried.  
  
"What is it?" She said, jumping down from the van. She pulled off the jacket that Weiss wore and saw the dark patch that was spreading over his black clothes. "Oh my God, Weiss you were shot. Why didn't you tell us?" Weiss' had felt strange as he tried to come up with a witty response.  
  
"Tis but a scratch." He said, quoting from Romeo and Juliet. He broke into laughter but no one joined in. Tears started coming from his eyes as he laughed. Then, suddenly, he crumpled to the ground and lay still. Syd and Vaughn, shocked by this, grabbed an arm each and lifted him into the van.   
  
"Drive to the nearest hospital. Quickly." Syd shouted at the driver, who did as he was told and the van sped off before Vaughn had a chance to close the door.  
  
Syd and Vaughn walked into the Op Centre of the CIA building in LA. Dixon was waiting for them in the corridor and when they met him he said nothing but began walking. They followed him to his office and took seats on the opposite side of his desk. None spoke for a while as Dixon sat leafing through documents that lay on his desk.  
  
"The mission was success." He said finally. Neither Vaughn or Syd could see how it was successful when their best friend had been shot and was lying in critical condition in hospital. "Apart from Agent Weiss' accident it seems everything went to plan. We have the intel, which seems only to be a document containing information about a Warehouse number 47 in downtown LA. It also contains some information about the assembly of the plane which is taking place in this warehouse." Syd and Vaughn nodded, taking the information in, although both were thinking mainly about their friend.  
  
"I want you two to go to the warehouse, kill anyone who stands in your way. And stop them assembling that plane. If that plane is allowed to be built, no one in the world is safe. It could be sold to anyone which means every country in the world is at risk." He slid two folders over the desk and Vaughn and Sydney each took one, flipping through the contents. Dixon cleared his throat and the two agents took this as a sign to leave. They stood up and left his office with grim faces.  
  
Once outside his office they breathed out. Syd looked worried about what Dixon had told them.  
  
"What if this plane has already been built. There is no way for us to stop it. Even Marshall won't know what to do and I doubt they will leave a manual around." Syd said, her expression full of worry and pain. Vaughn took her hand in his.  
  
"It'll be alright. They haven't had enough time to build it. We'll be fine." He hugged Syd, smiled at her and then left her outside Dixon's office.  
  
Syd and Vaughn found themselves, once again, sneaking into a warehouse. It seemed empty but they were getting used to this by now. Maybe the Covenant just didn't believe in security?   
  
There was a small door at the back of the warehouse and they slipped inside. The interior of the warehouse was brightly lit, displaying an emptiness except for a small crate in the centre of the room. There was no plane to be seen anywhere and Syd felt relieved. Again, there was no one around but they didn' t take any chances. They had thought no one had been there when Weiss was shot. Vaughn nodded to the box in the centre of the empty warehouse and they moved towards it, their guns raised, ready to shoot. When they reached the crate Syd bent down and pulled out a small crowbar from her pack. Vaughn frowned at her and she grinned.  
  
"Never know when one of these will come in handy." Vaughn let out a small laugh and then turned his full attention onto scanning the warehouse for anyone. Syd places the crowbars tip in the small gap where the crate was sealed, then with all her might, she pushed it in and pushed down on the end she was holding. The top of the crate popped off and Syd peered inside. Her eyes widened and she let out a strangled cry.  
  
Vaughn heard Syd's cry and turned round quickly. She was leaning over the crate, her eyes wide with terror. Vaughn too peered inside and was shocked by the contents. A large bomb was tucked neatly inside the crate. There was enough C4 strapped to it to take out several blocks. His immediate reaction was to take his phone out and call Marshall.  
  
"Flinkman here." Said the voice on the other end of the line.   
  
"Marshall. It's Vaughn..."  
  
"Vaughn....how did your mission go? Are you still in the middle of it? So I could be talking to you while you are on a mission. How cool is that? Is it fun? Did you find the plane thingy?" Vaughn was impatient.  
  
"Shut up Marshall." He shouted.   
  
"Well, there is really no need....." Marshall began, but he was cut short by Vaughn  
  
"Marshall, we are standing in a huge warehouse, with a bomb that is about to explode....in....two minutes. Even if we ran from the building we would still get caught in it because there is a lot of C4 in this thing." He could hear Marshall take in a huge gulp of air.  
  
"OK. Just....just explain the bomb to me....just....explain it." He said, stuttering in his anxiety. Vaughn gently pushed Syd to one side who was frantically searching the bomb herself.   
  
"Ok, we have...four wires all connected to a small black box. I don't know what that is. There are three separate bundles of C4 and the thing that is counting." He said, hurrying his words.  
  
"OK, this is a basic bomb. Anybody wanting to make a cheap but effective bomb uses this. Simple design, very simple way to stop it. The wires...are they red, black, green and blue?" Vaughn held them in his hand.  
  
"Yeah, yeah they are."  
  
"Right, first thing to do. Are all the wires connected just to the black box? or to one another?" Vaughn checked.  
  
"Just to the box." Marshall breathed a sigh of relief.  
  
"Ok, this bomb is stupid. If you disconnet all the wires that lead to the bombs...it won't do anything. The bomb only explodes when the counter either counts down to the number or it is told there is an interferance. Luckily the wires are not connected which means the counter will have no way in knowing if there has been an interferance. It will count down, tell the box to explode the bomb and kaboom. But because you have disconneted the other wires...no kaboom. You get me? Disconnet the wires now." Vaughn was just about to do this when he heard Marshall's voice again.  
  
"Ok, I am not one hundred percent sure that this will work though. It seems basic from here but they may do that to fool me, or you. So I will just say goodbye now, incase you know...the worse happens."  
  
"Bye Marshall." Vaughn hung up and turned to Syd. She looked at him with despair.  
  
"This is it. Moment of truth." He looked at the counter, 45 seconds. He grasped all but one of the wires and then turned to Syd. He leaned in and kissed her, wanting her to know how he felt before, if, they died. Then he pulled the wires. Nothing happened and Vaughn took this as a good sign. But the counter was still going. 25 seconds, 20 seconds.....every moment ticked past as Vaughn and Sydney sat helpless by the bomb. 10 seconds. Vaughn felt Syd's hand clasp his, he was glad for her presence. 5 seonds, 4, 3, 2, 1. Vaughn and Syd braced themselves, closing their eyes. But nothing came. Syd opened one eye and looked at the bomb. The counter was reading 00:00 and the bomb was undetonated. They both laughed, relieved they were alive. Vaughn leaned in to kiss Syd again but she pushed him away. He looked puzzled and she knew she had to explain herself.  
  
"Remember that time in North Korea, when I told you I had slept with Will and was moving on?" Vaughn nodded, not wanting to hear the rest. "well, I moved on. I met this guy Tom at a restaurant. We've been going out for a month." Vaughn had to bite back the tears that were welling in his eyes. He could see Syd was near tears as well.  
  
"I understand. I can't expect you to just be there. I married someone, right?" He got up and turned from her. Syd was about to talk to him when her phone rang. She plucked it from her pocket.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Agent Bristow?" A voice said from the other end of the line. She didn't recognise it.  
  
"This is she."  
  
"I'm afraid to say that Agent Weiss's condition has worsened. He drifted into a coma three hours ago."   
  
"Thank you for informing me." She hung up and turned to Vaughn who looked curios.  
  
"Who was that?" He asked. Syd couldn't help it now, she let the tears roll down her cheeks.  
  
"Um...Weiss...he went into a c...a coma three hours ago." She managed in between sobs. Vaughn pulled her into a hug and they stayed that way for, what seemed to Vaughn, a lifetime.   
  
"Syd, we need to get out of here. We could be attacked at any time." Syd nodded, drying her eyes. They picked up all their stuff and ran silently from the building.  
  
Lauren and Sark sat alone in an office. Sark was watching a TV screen intently, seeing Vaughn and Syd disable the bomb he had left for them. He grimaced.  
  
"It seems those two yet again escaped death. It seems your husband has a guardian angel." Sark said, a smile forming at the side of his mouth. Lauren was on edge.  
  
"What? You think I told him that there was that stupid bomb in there. I was the son of a bitch dead as much as you do. As well as that cow Sydney Bristow." Sark smiled cruelly.   
  
"I said nothing about you informing Agent Vaughn of the bomb. I merely said that he always seems to make it out of things unscathed. Although now I think about it, it is suspicious. When you planted that bomb, lucky how only the back blew up but when Vaughn was safely out of the vehicle the front exploded too. And the poison. That should have killed him unless it was a very, very mild dose. And now, you and me were the only people who knew of that bomb, but he dealt with it well didn't he? Knew exactly what to do." Lauren narrowed her eyes.  
  
"I would never, ever try and save his life. I planted the bomb, I did not make it so if it was not working, it was through no fault of my own. The poison was put into soup, it was likely that the soup watered it down and he did not drink the full dose. As for that bomb. I know nothing of bombs, so how do you explain me telling him what to do? If you care to watch that video you will see a mobile phone cluthed to Agent Vaughn's ear. I was with you the whole time this was taking place, therefore, I was not on the phone to him." She glared at Sark as he grinned.  
  
"I know Miss Reed. I was merely....having some fun." He chuckled at Lauren's face. "The plane is taking some time to assemble and my time will have to be fully devoted to that. However, if I am not present to..'run' things so to speak, everything will go to pot. Therefore, I suggest that we get some help. I have just received some intel that could ruin a person's reputation." Lauren looked intrigued, although she was slightly angry that Sark felt she couldn't be trusted with the affairs that he dealt with normally. Sark took a piece of crumpled paper from his pocket and slid it accross the table to Lauren.   
  
"Please ring this number." Lauren looked at it, frowning. "Is there a problem.?"  
  
"No...it's just, isn't this......?" Sark cut her off.  
  
"Yes, yes it is. Just hurry up and ring it." Lauren dailled the number into the phone and waited. The phone rang for some time before it was picked up.  
  
"Hello?" Said the voice on the other end. 


	3. Chapter 3

Lauren stepped out of her car into the sunlight. She was in the docklands area of Los Angeles, awaiting the arrival of a contact who was going to help her. Sark had left for Switzerland that morning where he was assembling his plane. Lauren had been left with specific orders to pick up the contact and take her back to their office. Her mobile phone began ringing. She rolled her eyes, knowing it was Sark who was ringing.

"Hello Sark." She said, obviously impatient.

"Has she arrived yet?" He asked, choosing to ignore the tone of voice Lauren had used.

"No. Oh wait. She's coming now."

"Good." And Sark hung up. Lauren mumbled something under her breath as she put the phone away, checked that her gun was well within her grip, and stepped forward to meet the oncoming car. It stopped inches from her and a woman stepped out.

"Hello Miss Reed. How is your husband?" The woman asked, sneering.

"Irina Derevko." Lauren said in a sing song voice. "Slips of the tongue doesn't it." Irina raised an eyebrow.

"I've always liked it." She retorted.

"What about Laura Bristow? Doesn't have the same ring to it does it?" Lauren laughed to herself at Irina's obvious anger.

"I heard that my daughter and your husband have rekindled their love. How bad you must be feeling." Irina smirked when a look of anger and jealously flashed across the younger woman's face.

"I thought you came here to work for me. Any more comments like that and the information I have on you could be leaked to anyone. It's a fine line to tread Irina." Lauren thought she had had the last word and turned back towards her own car, expecting Irina to follow her.

"It'll be Ms Derevko to you." Came Irina's voice from behind her.

Irina sat with Lauren in a newly furbished office. She had just been debriefed by Lauren on what she had to do whilst she was here. A lot of it involved killing her daughter and Michael Vaughn. She did not care for Michael Vaughn, it would be easy to kill him but she knew Sydney loved him and she could not do that to her. The other part of her work was kidnapp Marshall Flinkman who was to give his technical expertise to help build the plane. She was thinking about this when a plan began to form into her head. And it just might work.

"Is Mr. Sark coming back anytime soon? I would have thought that when I deliver Flinkman, he will want to be here." Lauren looked at her suspiciously but decided to give her the benfit of the doubt. Too much was at risk for Irina if she betrayed them.

"Yes. He is coming back the day after tomorrow. He wants to meet you again so I expect you to be here. 1 Twelve o clock on Thursday. And you will be expected to have Flinkman with you." Irina nodded.

"May I go now? I have a lot to do in the next two days." Lauren nodded and waved her head in the direction of the door. Irina got up and left the room. She knew exactly what she was going to do now.

Sydney was sitting by Weiss' bed with Vaughn when her mobile phone rang. She excused herself and made her way to the door.

"Sydney." She said, flipping the phone open and putting it to her ear.

"Hello Sydney." Came her mother's voice on the other end. Syd was speechless for a moment but Irina spoke again. "I have some important news and I only have a few minutes to speak so listen carefully.

"You can't just....."

"Shut up and listen Sydney." Syd was silenced and listened to her mother's hurried voice. "Lauren and Sark have blackmailed me into helping them with their plans. They want me to kidnapp Marshall Flinkman, kill Agent Vaughn...and you. They are attempting to build a nuclear weapon and they require MR.Flinkman's expertise. They also know that you and Agent Vaughn have been hot on their tails and want you stopped. I knew the moment they contacted me that I should tell you. I know that you have spent a lot of time and money in trying to catch those two, maybe now you will"

"Why are you telling me this?" Sydney asked, suspicious of her mother's motives.

"Because you're my daughter." Sydney was touched briefly but she then remembered everything her mother had done in the past. "Sark is currently in Switzerland but on Thursday at twelve o clock he will be back, in Los Angeles to meet with Lauren. I can give you an address. You can finally take them into custody." Sydney didn't know what to say. This could mean that the CIA finally had hold of Sark again and of Lauren who had been a mole. But it could be a trap.

"What do you want in return.?"

"They have some documents that could ruin me. I want them destroyed. But I can do that on my own. I want nothing in return. I do not like being blackmailed. That is my main reason for doing this."

"If I trust you, I ask you to do something for me in return." Sydney said, her voice full of resolve.

"I will do anything."

"Never, ever contact me again." Sydney hung up the phone without waiting for a reply. She knew her mother would be hurt, that was the point. If Irina could spend months, years without contacting her own daughter, then it could work the other way.

Vaughn was watching her as she sat back down.

"You alright?" He asked, a concerned expression on his face. Syd breathed in deeply and nodded.

"I'm fine." She sat back down, making sure not to look at Vaughn as she knew he was looking at her.

"What happened? Who rang you?" Asked Vaughn, not wanting to leave the subject alone until he found out what was bothering Syd so much.

"No one. Just leave it, I'm fine." With that she got up and stormed out of the room, out of the hospital and drove home alone, feeling bad for snapping at Vaughn.

Dixon, Jack, Sydney, Vaughn and Marshall all sat in the briefing room. Each of them was looking at a file containing all the information Irina had supplied. No one was speaking, everyone too engrossed in the information that lay before them. Dixon was the first one to speak, as he stood up and clicked a button that made an image appear on everyone's computer screens. The image showed a hotel. Sydney recognised it, it was only a few blocks away from where they sat.

"A room has been booked for two weeks under the name of Alysia Buckby. We now know this to be one of Reed's aliases. Vaughn and Sydney you will occupy the room next to theirs for the next few days, prior to the meeting. If Sark and Lauren have been tipped off and come earlier, then you will be there to record everything they say and do and if they attempt to leave you will use necessary force to bring them in." Vaughn looked over at Syd as Dixon spoke but averted his gaze when her eyes met his. "On the day of the meeting all the rooms around Sark's will be occupied by CIA agents. At exactly 11:58 room service will be called to the room opposite theirs. An agent will pose as the young man and will be able to catch them both if they leave. I want this to go off without a glitch which means Sydney and Vaughn, you cannot leave your room at all and all agent must use aliases. I have already booked your room under the names of Mr and Mrs P Scott. You are expected to check in in half an hour." Everyone gathered together their belongings and strolled out of the room. Vaughn was the last to leave.

Sydney sat on the bed of her room watching TV whilst Vaughn was in the bathroom. Their equipment was spread over the floor making it very difficult to walk in. Microphones were placed at various points on the wall that they shared with Sark and Lauren's room. Each of the microphones was connected to a small box that showed voice patterns and also to a tape recorder that would record everything that was said in the next room. A laptop was propped up on a chair by the window, it was showing images from the next room where they had installed cameras almost three days ago. Ever since then they had been relaxing in their room, watching TV, ordering room service, but taking great care not to talk to each other much. Today was Thursday and Sark and Lauren were expected to be at their room in less than an hour. Sydney was keeping an eye on the voice pattern boxes and on the cameras, both would show if someone was in the room and who they were. Vaughn was brushing his teeth and doing his hair, steering clear of Sydney for the day. In the last three days nothing at all had happened expect the day they had checked in and found that their room contained only a double bed which immediately meant Vaughn slept on the floor with a thin blanket and a pillow.

There was a noise next door and Syd darted over to the laptop. Two people were entering the room and upon zooming in on the camera, she saw that it was Sark and Lauren. Both were looking smug. She immediatley ran into the bathroom to notify Vaughn. He was standing with a towel wrapped around his waist, using a seperate one to dry his wet hair. Syd went weak at the knees but she recovered enough to manage a few words.

"Sark and Lauren. In room. NOW!" Vaughn sprung into action. He ran into the bedroom and pulled on some underpants, jeans and a tshirt. He then pulled his gun from a drawer and waited for Syd who was busy making sure the cameras and tape recorder were both recording what was happening in the next room. Syd then too grabbed her gun and they made their way out into the corridor and stood outside the door to Sark and Lauren's room. Six other agents had joined them. All were anticipating the capture of the couple.

Ten minutes passed as the eight CIA agents stood around the door to the couple's room. Their guns were cocked, their hands were shaking with the excitement. A noise came from the door they were facing, it was the turning of a handle.

"We wait until both are in the hallway." Whispered Sydney. All the agents retreated a little way to allow the pair inside to step into the corridor. The door began to open slowly and the agents braced themselves, some moving into half crouching positios, some poised to attack. The door opened wide and Sark came striding out with Lauren right behind him. It took them both a few, precious, seconds to realise what was going on but by then it was too late. The door had quickly been closed by the nearest agent and they were surrounded. With nowhere to go, and no means to defend themselves, they gave in. Sark and Lauren raised their hands into the air, looking glum. As handcuffs were placed on the two captives, Vaughn moved back from the crowd. Lauren had not even registered his presence, it was like he had never existed. But what could he expect? He certainly didn't want her to plead with him for forgiveness or anything. She had betrayed him, she should deal with the guilt that that brought. But he just wanted at least the slightest flicker of recognition, just so he could have the satisfaction of walking away and leaving her with Sark. Four agents, two to each prisoner, escorted the prisoners down the hall and out of the hotel. Two of those agenst were Sydney and Vaughn. As the prisoners were being put into seperate cars, Sark turned to Lauren and said loudly.

"I love you, my sweet." Lauren merely batted her eyelashes and smiled. Vaughn gritted his teeth, fighting the urge to punch Sark right in the face. Syd got into the car with Sark while Vaughn got into the car with Lauren, having insisted upon it. 'Unfished business' he had said.

Later that night

Vaughn stepped into the smoky interior of a bar. The place was pakced with people joking with each other, talking about their days and sharing drinks. Vaughn was alone. He pushed through the crowd, towards the bar only to find Sydney sitting there. At first he thought she was alone but as someone moved he saw that she was sitting with another man. He guessed this was her new boyfriend, Tom. He was contemplating leaving when he noticed that Tom was looking at him with a odd expression, as if he had seen him somewhere before. Syd followed Tom's gaze and saw Vaughn standing only a few steps away from her. There was silence. Tom didn't know who this man was, and Vaughn and Syd didn't know what to say to each other. Tom coughed quietly, indicating that Syd should introduce Vaughn.

"Oh. Tom this is Michael Vaughn. He works at my school." Syd explained. Vaughn stretched out a hand which Tom took, smiling at Vaughn.

"What grade do you take?" Tom asked, trying to initiate conversation. Vaughn didn't need to think, the school story had been used before by Syd and himself, Syd was a teacher of 4th Grade and he was a TA with 3rd Grade.

"I'm a TA, normally with the thrid grade." Tom nodded. Another silence fell between the group. Tom turned back to his drink, while Vaughn and Syd shot glances at each other.

"Michael. I didn't know you came to this bar." Said Syd. Vaughn frowned but still answered the question.

"My wife and I used to come here. When you were working at that other school for two years." Vaughn said, looking pointedly at Syd. Tom remained oblivious to the tension between the pair.

"This is where me and Sydney met." He said, leaning in to kiss Syd. She smiled lovingly at him when they pulled away. Vaughn couldn't take it. He stepped closer to Syd and whispered in her ear.

"I need to talk to you." Syd excused herself and followed Vaughn to a quiet area of the bar. For a moment they stood in silence. Syd could see that something was troubling Vaughn.

"Is this an attempt to make me jealous?" He suddenly burst out. Syd was taken aback at first but then thought for a moment.

"Is it working?" Vaughn looked at her hard for a long time before finally nodding.

"Look Vaughn, we've been through a lot. I understand why you moved on when i...went. Now I am doing the same, I can't spend my life wondering whether you are going to sweep me off my feet. Things can never go back to the way they were. I like Tom, a lot, but having you around is making all this harder....." Syd said, tearfully. They stood and stared into each others eyes before Vaughn leaned in and kissed Syd softly on the lips. Syd resisted for a moment but gave in, she had been wanting this for so long. They pulled away from each other to see Tom standing, watching them. He said nothing, but his expressiom showed his anger and hurt.

"Oh god. Tom, I'm so sorry. It...I don't....it's complicated." She said. Tom swallowed hard.

"I always knew you were too good to be true. I guess I just found the evidence for that." Syd edged towards him. "NO! Don't......have a good life with... Michael." Tom stalked off, leaving Syd stunned. Vaughn was lurking behind her, feeling bad. When Syd turned toward him, about to speak, he silenced her with another kiss.

At the CIA

Lindsey walked slowly into the corridor. A guard sat at a table, watching the monitors that showed another corridor and all the cells on that corridor that were holding prisoners. In one cell, Sark and Lauren sat, talking quietly among themselves. The guard looked up as Lindsey approached. He looked a little confused when he saw the pair of pliers in the man's hand but he did not say anything.

"Are you here to see the prisoners?" He asked, his finger poised on a button that Lindsey could only guess would open the barred doors and give him access to Sark and Lauren.

"I am indeed." He reached inside his jacket pocket, as if to get his security pass. The guard looked down for a brief second and when he looked back at Lindsey, he found a gun pressed against his head.

"Unfortunately, I recquire more than a questioning session." Lindsey pulled the trigger and the guard collapsed in a pool of warm blood. Lindsey looked down at his shoes, which had small droplets of blood on them. He then looked at his clothes which were also splattered with blood. He sighed and put the gun away. He pressed the button on the table and a barred door slid open, he walked through and stopped behind a camera. He tightened his grip on the pliers and then cut the wires. On the monitors behind him, one screen went fuzzy. He carried on walking, taking out each camera one by one. Then he stopped by the cell that was holding Sark and Lauren. Neither looked at all surprised to see him, they had not heard the gunshot, nor seen him disabling the cameras. They merely thought that he was here to question them. Lindsey said nothing to them but calmly opened the door. Sark's usually cocky expression had been taken over by one of confusion. Lauren looked exactly the same.

"I'm here to extract you both." Lindsey said. Lauren began stuttering about how he could not, they were prisoners and he would be betraying America.

"You seemed to have no difficulty doing that." He grinned and offered her his hand. Lauren took it and stepped out of the cell. Sark got up to follow but stopped when Lindsey raised the gun. He brought it down hard on Lauren's head and then turned it towards Sark. Sark's eyes widened in shock. He heard the gun fire, and then felt the bullet entering his body just below his lungs. He fell back, crying out in pain. Lindsey watched as he writhed on the floor, then he went still. Smiling, Lindsey took Lauren's limp body and walked out of a back door.

Guards rushed into the corridor that Lindsey had been in only ten minutes before. They had been monitoring the cameras and had seen when they all went blank. The dead guard was lying where he had been left, sprawled on the floor, in a puddle of thick red blood. One guard saw the sight and threw up then and there. Others rushed off down the corridor, to Sark and Lauren's cell. They found Sark lying alone in there, he looked dead but they checked for a pulse anyway. He was alive. The guards called for a medical team who rushed in with a stretcher and rushed Sark to the nearest hospital, where he would be under heavy surveillence. The guards then checked the rest of the cells and the corridors for any clue to where Lauren was, and who had taken her. All they found was a broken lock on the door to the corridor.

Syd walked calmly into Sark's hospital room. He lay propped up on the bed, staring off into nothingness. Two guards were standing outside his door, and another four where gathered inside his room. He was also strapped down to the bed. He looked slightly pleased when Syd entered and she gave him a disgusted look.

"I am not here on a social call Sark. I am here for information which you WILL give to me." She said, before he had the chance to open his mouth.

"Of course." He said, in the same sneering tone as Syd had often experienced before. "Happy to comply."

"Do you remember the person who shot you. Can you remember what he looked like at all?" She asked, clutching her notebook and pen in her hand, ready to write down what Sark said.

"Yes, I can remember quite clearly actually. When the man stepped up in front of the glass, I can recall, vividely, Miss Reed saying that it was someone called Lindsey. I can describe him if you wish." He said, taking in Sydney's shocked expression upon hearing this news.

"That will be all." She got up and left the room quickly. Once outside the room she dialled her fathers number.

"Dad. The man who kidnapped Lauren....it was Lindsey. I think he must be working for The Covenent or something." Jack said nothing for several minutes.

"I'll have two teams sent to Washington. One to his home, and one to his office, if he is stupid enough to go back." Syd nodded and hung up, fuming with anger.

Washington

Lindsey strolled through the doors to his workplace. He wore a smug expression, playing yesterday over and over in his head.

"I am a genious" He thought to himself. Sark was dead and he had Lauren. That is what the Covenant had told him to do and he had done it with mroe effiency that Sark ever had. Now the Covenant had Sark's money and not the annoying English man. It was an excellent plan, that he would have liked to take credit for. As Lindsey got closer to his office he began to notice odd things. People were moving away from him, others staring at him in disbelief. He also noticed that there were many more guards than usual, and all were keeping an eye on him. Anxiety spread through him like wildfire, what if they had found out what he had done? He pushed the thought from his head. It was impossible. He had been careful, he hadn't used his own access card, he had disabled all cameras and he had killed both witnesses. No one could have known. Just then something beeped. He looked down at what appeared to be a pager. It was flashing 911. The pager was linked to his alarm system at home, if anyone broke in, he would know about it first.

"They know." He thought. He lifted his head and gazed around the office. Everyone had been evacuated, leaving only the guards. He breathed in and cursed loudly, then reached inside his pocket. He knew that the guards were only armed with batons and pepper spray, he had the advantage. He took out his gun and pressed his finger into the trigger. Gunfire erupted and smoke filled the room, as bullets his the lights and computers. After a while the smoke clear and the gunfire subsided. One guard stepped out of the line that had enclosed Lindsey. He knelt beside the bloodied body of Lindsey and checked for a pulse. He wasn't breathing. He hadn't even managed to fire a single shot. The guard took out his radio.

"Sir. The target is dead. He attempted to fire upon us so we shot him down. We are going to proceed to search his office and the files on his computer." If Lindsey had really paid attention he would have realised that these were no mere guards,they were agents of the CIA, headed by Jack Bristow. The guard did not wait for a reply and his team immediately left the body and made their way to his office. Two medics remained with the body, putting it into a black bag and onto a stretcher. As the medics left, a small man in a suit got up from behind a desk. He glared at the retreating backs of the medics, then reached for his own phone.

"Yes, hello it's Porchovsky. Lindsey was shot at his office. He's dead. He must have left Sark alive on purpose, or by mistake." The man said, with a thick Russian accent. "Yes sir, i understand that Sark is now our main priority. Search and destroy. I understand sir." He put the phone away just as one of the guards came over to him.

"Sir you need to leave these premises immediately. It is not safe to be here at this time, we are conducting an investigation." The guard said. Porchovsky smiled.

"Of course. I'm sorry, I was in the bathroom when everyone was evacuated and when I came out I hid behind this desk. I'll be happy to go." This time when Porchovsky spoke, he had a perfect American accent. The guard nodded and watched as Porchovsky left.

Syd was sitting with Vaughn in the debriefing room when Jack walked in. He had a triumphant look upon his face.

"Lindsey went to work as usual this morning. He was confronted by my team and immediately attempted to fireupon them. He was killed before he could do any damage." Syd also looked pleased to hear about his death, but her expression changed when Vaughn spoke.

"Any news about the whereabouts of Lauren?" He asked. Syd's smiled disappeared, she could hear the concern in his voice.

"No. We assume that she is back with the Covenant. She will be keeping her head down for the moment, but I am almost certain that within a few months she will be a huge problem to the US government again." Jack said, deliberatly mentioning the fact that she was a traitor the US, and that she was working for the people they were working against. Vaughn got the hint and did not say anything more in the subject.

"Do you think that they will target Sark? After all he was the one who revealed Lindsey, and they had wanted him dead in the first place." Syd said. Jack thought for a moment.

"You're right. I'll have him moved to a secure location somewhere. Whether he is recovered or not."

Lindsey's house - Earlier

Jack's team moved into position around the house. There were agents covering all exits, including windows. Four agents stood around the door with a battering ram. One hit was all it took and the wooden door flung inwards. Immediately an alarm went off, and a screeching noise filled the silence. At that time in Lindsey's office, he was looking at his pager, which was telling him of the break in.

One guard went into the house and smashed the alarm system. The noise stopped and once again silence reigned. The rest of the agents filed into the house, carefully searching each room. Nothing out of the ordinary was found, and Lindsey was nowhere to be seen. One last door remained untouched. The agents crowded around it whilst one nervously twisted the handle. The door opened inwards to reveal a set of dark stairs leading down into a pitch black basement. The first agent looked at his team mates, they all nodded and he began to descend the stairs. At the bottom he could see nothing, not even his own hand in front of his face. Feeling around the walls he found a lightswitch and turned it on. What was revealed to the team shocked them. The walls were covered with pictures of Sydney Bristown, copies of the prophecy that bore her face were spread everywhere. Sheets of paper with details on her covered the floor and tables. A computer that was switched on had a desktop background of Sydney, and all the files on the computer carried information on her. her own CIA agent profile was sitting, opened, in the middle of the desk. Lindsey was doing some serious research. The first agent took out his radio.

"Mr Bristow. We've found something very disturbing down here. In the basement are endless files and pictures on your daughter. He has been conducting some sort of research into her, all of her missions are listed as well. I think you might want to come and check this out."

"I'm on my way. Lindsey is dead." Jack replied. The agent put his radio away and began searching through the files. Jack, meanwhile, went to talk to Sydney and Vaughn in the debriefing room. He wouldn't tell Syd about the findings until he had seen it for himself.

Jack had spent the whole day in Washington going through the files on Sydney that were in Lindsey's basement. He had been shocked about the depth of Lindsey's research. All of Sydney's aliases were listed, all the missions she had been on, her relationship with Vaughn. There were even some portions of himself and Irina. What he found most disturbing was the chronicles of her life, from when she was born. He had no idea how Lindsey had got his hands on that information.

Now Jack was back at the CIA. He sat at his desk, only metres away from Sydney whose head was buried in her work. As he watched her he came to the conclusion that he would not tell her about Lindsey's research. It would only upset her and she didn't need that. Sighing he turned back to his own work, his mind set.

Sydney and Vaughn walked hand in hand into the hospital room. Weiss lay on the bed with wires covering his body. A heart monitor beeped away relentlessly next to his bed. A chair stood beside his bed and Syd sat down. Vaughn stood beside her, looking at Weiss, almost with tears in his eyes.

"Hey Eric." Syd whispered. She took his hand in hers. "You've missed a lot. Lauren and Sark were captured, then Lindsey came and shot Sark and took Lauren away and then Lindsey got killed himself. It's been hectic." A doctor came in to check on Weiss.

"Uh, Doctor, how is he?" Vaughn asked. The doctor looked sad and bowed his head for a second.

"He's still in a coma. He lost a lot of blood and the bullet hit some majoy organs. Right now he had a 50/50 chance of survival but we're still hopeful. Any normal person would have died a lot sooner than this. He's a fighter." The doctor left. Sydney broke down into tears. Vaughn put a supportive hand on her shoulder but she brushed it off.

"I need to get some air." She jumped up from her seat and left the room. Vaughn sat down where she had been and began talking to Weiss.

Sydney strolled down the corridor, headed towards the doors. She went passed a door and stopped suddenly. Inside lay Sark, the CIA hadn't moved him to a secure location yet, even though he looked almost fully recovered. He was sitting up in bed reading Time magazine and grinning to himself. Syd felt a surge of anger and pushed open the door. Sark looked up in time to see Sydney rushing at him, her eyes full of madness. He barely had anytime to react before Sydney wrapped her hands around his throat and squeezed. Sark felt his oxygen supply being cut off and he clawed at Syd's arms, trying to stop her. Sark's face was slowly turning red, then purple. He let out a strangled cry, his arms thrashing about widly. Syd tighted her grip on his throat, tears falling out of her eyes. Sark's stuggles began to subside, she had almost killed him. Then she felt strong hands on her shoulders and she was being pulled backwards. Syd fell on the floor letting all her emotions out. Vaughn knelt down beside her and pulled her into a tight hug. Sark was coughly in the bed above them but he stopped for a moment to say.

"You need to keep your girl in a cage." Vaughn's own anger rose. He stood up slowly and turned to face Sark who was laughing quietly. Vaughn sneered and punched him in the face. He was instantly knocked out. Vaughn went back to Syd, helping her to her feet and walking her back to Weiss' room. Once inside he took out his phone and rang Dixon.

"You need to get Sark out of this hospital." Was all he said before he hung up.

Lauren sat alone in the basement of an old house. Lindsey had left her there when he had taken her from the CIA, promising that the Covenant would be along soon to collect her. The basement contained a bed, a TV, a radio and a toilet. Lauren was still wearing the same clothes that she had been arrested in, that she had worn in the cell with Sark. Sark. Was he dead? She had seen Lindsey shoot him at pretty much point blank range. The Covenant had obviously wanted him dead, maybe they just wanted information out of her before they killed her. The room she was in smelt. Damp staked its territory on every wall and on the ceiling. The toilet hadn't been cleaned for what seemed like a lifetime and her own additions didn't help. The TV only showed one channel, MTV. Lauren had been sat watching music videos for her whole time here. The bed was covered by a thin sheet and a blanket, with a small pillow filled with something hard. She was losing hope of even getting out of the basement. Lindsey had gone and never come back, although he had said he would be back before the Covenant would get her. All the food she had was a fridge full of tinned peaches and some chocolate bars. She had begun with three bottles of water, but was now down to only one. The only thing she had that was of any use was her mobile phone but she had no one to get her. The CIA would put her back in their custody, and the Covenant wanted her dead. There was no one who would help her. But then a though struck her. Vaughn might still help her. He was her only chance anyway. She pulled her phone out of her shoe where she had kept it during her time in CIA custody. She dialled the number she knew so well and waited.

"Hello?" Said Vaughn's voice on the other end. Lauren realised how much she missed him.

Vaughn sat perched on Sydney's desk. Sydney was busy working, her head bent low towards the keyboard as she typed furiously.

"It's a Friday. You shouldn't be working." He said watching her working. Syd sighed and looked at him.

"Yeah but if I don't do this then when I get back on Monday this will all be here for me to do and I will be thinking about it all weekend and it will make me feel bad." She turned back to her work and Vaughn rolled his eyes. He jumped down off the desk and came up behind Syd, taking her hands off the keyboard and turning her towards him.

"You could at least take a break. Come on, I am going to go and get some coffee, come with me." He urged. Sydney shook her head. Vaughn sighed and admitted defeat.

"Alright then, well I'll just go and get a coffee and if you want to join me you know where I will be." He grinned at her and walked away. He turned back to see that Sydney had once again returned to her work. He laughed quietly to himself and then walked away down a corridor.

Vaughn was halfway towards the cafeteria when his phone began to ring. He took it out of his pocket and flipped it open.

"Hello?" He answered. The voice on the other end surprised him.

"Michael. It's Lauren. I need your help." Vaughn was flooded with anger as he moved out of the corridor and into a small room, leaving the door open. He then turned his focus back to Lauren on the phone.

"What do you want?" He spat angrily.

"Michael, I need your help. Lindsey's took me away and locked me in the basement of some house. He said that the Covenant were going to come and get me. I think they want to kill me. Please, you have to help me Michael. I'm sorry for everything I did." Vaughn thought for a moment then took a breat and replied. Lauren was sobbing hysterically.

"Lauren, Lauren listen to me. I'm going to come and get you. Do you know anyway that I can find you. Saying that your in a house is not much to go by is it." He said, trying to calm down his wife. Lauren stopped crying for a second.

"Yeah. I always put a tracking device on my phones just in case something like this happens. They're Marshall's, he'll know the frequency that they emitt. Please, just hurry." Vaughn nodded.

"I will be there within the next twelve hours. Try to stay alive." And with that he hung up on her. Checking left and right he moved out of the room, still going towards the cafeteria for his coffee. As he disappeared, Syd appeared from behind a pillar, her face full of anger and pain. A tear fell down her face as she turned away and went back to her desk.

Vaughn strolled back towards Sydney's desk. She was still there working away and she looked like she hadn't moved an inch. She did not look up as she approached, neither did she say a single word as he placed the coffee he had brought her on the desk.

"Still working then?" He asked, laughing slightly. Sydney looked straight ahead, concentrating only on her work. Something wasn't right. "You alright?" He asked, leaning in to look at her face. Her eyes were distant, she wasn't even concentrating on her work properly.

"I'm fine." Was all she said. Vaugh continued to press it.

"You don't seem alright. Is something wrong. Have I done something wrong?" He asked, wanting to know why she was acting so strangely.

"Just leave it Vaughn." She said angrily, pushing her chair backwards and getting up. She stalked off towards the exit, leaving Vaughn staring after her in disbelief. He frowned and then got up and made his way towards Marshall's office completely unaware that Syd had stopped and was now watching him.

Lauren heard the car pull up outside the house. She held her breath, it could be Vaughn, but it could also be the Covenant, as Lindsey had said they would come for her. She moved closer to the door to the basement and listened. There were footsteps coming from the front of the house, only one set. Still she waited until she called out, she didn't want to give herself away. The footsteps stopped close to the door.

"Lauren?" Vaughn was calling out her name. Her heart skipped a beat. She couldn't believe he was actually here. After the way she had treated him she expected that he would just have sent a team to pick her up and take her back into custody. She also expected that he was now with Sydney. "Lauren? Lauren?" He continued to call out her name.

"Vaughn. Vaughn I'm down here. In the basement." She heard the sound of running feet. Then there was a scraping sound, the key was turning in the lock. Lindsey had obviously thought that she would not be found by anyone other than the Covenant so he had left the key in the lock. She backed away from the door and the handle slowly turned. The door was pulled open and Vaughn stood at the top of the stairs, staring down at her. The sunlight flooded in, blinding her momentarily. Vaughn held out a hand and she took it, walking up into the main house. They stood there for a moment, Lauren flooded with emotions. She beamed at Vaughn but he did not respond.

"Thank you so much. I'm so sorry for everything I did to you." Vaughn still said nothing. As her eyes adjusted to the light she studied his face. His eyes were full of malice and hate.

"Vaughn?" He pulled back his arm and then punched her square in the face. She fell back against the wall, gasping. He moved towards her and began throwing punches at her, targeting her stomach and face. Lauren fell to the floor crying, and in pain. Vaughn stood over his eyes wild, breathing heavily. He delivered another blow to her head which knocked her out and then took hold of her feet and dragged her out of the house.

Sydney sat in the CIA looking glum. Vaughn had been gone for almost the whole day. She didn't know where Lauren had been kept but from Vaughn's long absence she could tell that it was quite far away. She looked around the office, hoping to find Vaughn although she knew he wouldn't be there. She felt bad for getting at him but she just couldn't believe that he would go back to her after the three times that he tried to kill him, and all the lying and betrayal there had been. She turned back to her computer. Too low to work she decided to play solitaire instead. She was halfway through the game when she heard a commotion. Guards were rushing towards the entrance, yelling thing to one another. Syd, always curious, turned round to see Vaughn walking in through the doors. His hand was behind his back and as she looked she saw that Lauren was trailing after him, almost on her knees as Vaughn was dragging her rather harshly. Her face was swollen and bloodied, Vaughn had obviously let his anger out on her. Syd couldn't believe it. She had been wrong about him. He hadn't been going back to Lauren, he had been bringing her back to CIA custody. She got up and almost ran towards him. He let go of Lauren's arm, who was immediately handcuffed by the guards and let away. Syd flung her arms around his neck, spluttering with apologies.

"I'm so sorry that I doubted you Vaughn. I thought that you were going back to her." Syd said. Vaughn looked confused.

"How did you know that I was going to find Lauren." Syd smiled.

"I was going to go and get that coffee and I heard you talking. I heard you saying that you were going to go and get her. I assumed the worst." She grinned and then added. "It's what the CIA does to you." They both laughed loudly. Lauren looked distraught and she watched Vaughn kiss Sydney. She knew then that whatever it took, she would get revenge on the both of them. Especially Sydney Bristow.

Syd moved hurridly about her room, collecting together all her clothes and stuffing them into her bag. She and Vaughn had plans for the weekend, they were going to Santa Monica like they had said they would all those years ago. Syd was flushed with excitement. Then the phone rang.

"Hello?"

"Sydney. It's Dixon. We're picking up a signal from the plane Sark was supposed to be building. Looks like construction went underway without him. We need you in the office immediately. Vaughn has already been contacted." Dixon hung up before Syd could object. She flung her phone angrily on the bed. She was never allowed anytime to just rest, and be happy, work ALWAYS came first. Syd didn't bother unpacking again, she just grabbed her keys for her car and left the house. Vaughn was standing by his car outside her house, a grim look on his face.

"I guess you heard then." Syd said as she approached him. He nodded.

"Yep, it was so considerate of them to make us work on a Saturday. I mean are we the only agents around?" Sydney smiled.

"I know what you mean. We seem to do every job. I am sure that somewhere in the depths of the CIA are some more agents just itching to do some field work." Vaughn laughed slightly and then opened the door of his car for Sydney. She climbed into the car, followed by Vaughn. He twisted the keys in the ignition and the car rolled out of Syd's drive.

CIA

Syd, Vaughn, Marshall, Jack and Dixon once again sat around the table in the CIA briefing room. Syd and Vaughn had only arrived five minutes before but already they knew the seriousness of the situation. The plan had been built completely, and it was armed. Marshall had been keeping an eye on the signals that the weapon would emit and this morning they had reached their peak, which meant that it was armed. Dixon sighed as he slid two files over to Sydney and Vaughn.

"I know you don't want to do this but I want you two to find this thing. This weapon poses a huge threat. It could hit America, and take out a large area of us. Or, it could be launched from here to another country and then they could retaliate. That would be the best way to destroy both countries." Vaughn looked over at Syd who shrugged her shoulders, as if to say that they had no choice. Then Jack stood up.

"Dixon, I agree that this could be a serious problem but we are talking about sending my daughter to her probably death."

"Sit down Jack." Dixon said, raising his voice. "Sydney and Vaughn have nothing to worry about. They are simply doing a reconnassaince mission. They will report where the weapon is, a team that will be waiting will then go in and disable the weapon. She in in no danger." Jack glared at Dixon for a moment, then sat down once again.

"Sydney, Vaughn. See Marshall for Op Tech. You leave for San Fransico in half an hour." Sydney and Vaughn got up and left with Marshall. As they left they heard Dixon and Jack shouting about Sydney. Walking over to Marshall office Sydney turned to Vaughn.

"If it is just recon, why do we need Marshall's inventions?" Vaughn looked thoughtful for a while and then shrugged, moving away from her.

Vaughn and Sydney lay in the thick grass outside a nuclear weapons facility. There were four separate buildings, surrounded by a large electric fence. There was only one entrance which was heavily guarded. Each vehicle that went through was stopped, the driver had to show ID and a facility pass and the vehicle was searched. Four guards manned the entrance, each with automatic rifles. Cameras were positioned around the entranced, focused on the road. The place was inpenetrable.

Vaughn had binoculars clamped to his eyes, searching the facility. Vehicles were coming and going and all were heading for the same building. As Vaughn followed a lorry that had just entered the facility, he saw the doors to one of the buildings open. From his position he was able to see the plane. It was sleek and slender. It had already been painted in camoflage colours and the nose was facing towards the entrance. It was going to be used soon.

"I see it." Vaughn whispered to Syd, who pulled out her own binoculars and saw for herself the plane.

"Dixon. We've got a positive visual on the plane. Are the team ready?" Dixon didn't reply to a while.

"The team are moving into place." Syd was about to disconnet radio communication and leave but then Dixon spoke again. "But Sydney. We need you in there as well."

"Dixon no. I am not going in there. You promised my father that I was in no danger, that I didn't have to go in there."

"I made no such promise. Vaughn stays in his position. You go in alone, you'll find that Marshall gave you everything you will need. The team will come later." Dixon informed, impatiently.

"No. I am not doing this." Sydney said. Vaughn sat beside her, confused. He could not hear the conversation.

"You are an American citizen. Would you rather go in there and keep your country safe? Or do you want to see it become a barren wasteland where nothing lives? Because that is what will happen if you do not go in there."

"You cannot do this to me. I lost two years of my life. You cannot send me in there." At these words, Vaughn snatched the radio link out of Sydney's ear. He pressed it into his own.

"Dixon. You cannot make her do this." Vaughn shouted.

"Agent Vaughn are you really looking to lose your job today?" Dixon said cooly. Vaughn spluttered. He couldn't believe Dixon could be so insensitive. "I didn't think so. Please, let me talk to Sydney again." Vaughn handed the link back, looking defeated.

"Sydney. I can only say one thing. You are disobeying a direct order. You will lose your job." Dixon broke the communication link and everything went silent.

"Syd you don't have to do this. He tricked you into doing it. You have witnesses. You're father, me." Syd took a breath.

"Vaughn, as much as we don't like the situation we are in, we have been in worse. I have to do this. I'll see you later." Syd got up and ran away from Vaughn who lay in the grass staring after her.

"Syd! No!!" He shouted after her.

Sydney walked up to the facility entrance. The guards stopped her immediately, their guns pointed at her, ready to fire.

"This is restricted access sweety." One of the guards said, eyeing Syd up. She smiled sweetly.

"But it looks so cool. I bet it's a hard job keeping this place safe. I bet you have to be really strong." She said, running her hand over the guards bicep. He grinned at his friends. "Have you ever killed someone?" She asked. The guy looked tough.

"I sure have. I've killed plenty of people. I've probably killed more people than you'll ever meet in your life." Syd put on a face of mock awe.

"Wow. You must be really skilled." She purred. Then she looked at the facility.

"So what are you protecting?"

"They build bombs here. You know, what the army uses to bomb countries. All of that happens here."

"Wow. I dated someone in the army before. He drove tanks I think. He talked a lot about weapons. I sure would like to have a tour round here. I mean, we don't have to look at the bombs. We could go somewhere......quieter. Your friends will cover for you." The guard grinned, thinking he was the luckiest guy.

"Yeah. Things are pretty slow tonight. These guys will cover for me." He said, putting his gun back in the small hut. One of the other guards stepped forward, after encouragement from his friends.

"If we're going to all this length to cover for you. I think we should at least get something out of it." He then turned to Syd. "I'm sure you could give us all a bit of your time." He leered at her and Sydney found it hard to keep on her cheeky, seductive grin.

"Well. We'll wait and see won't we." The first guard took Sydney's hand and led her into the facility.

The guard took Syd to another small building. This looked like the staff lounge or something. There were chairs everywhere. A small coffee table with used mugs on and a counter that had a kettle and a microwave on. Sydney also noted that in one corner were the lockers. And on top of one locker was a uniform. The guard sat Sydney down on one of the chairs while he took the other. He put one hand on her thigh and turned to her.

"So." He said, breathing heavily. His breath smelt like stale beer and cigarettes. Syd was disgusted but she tried hard not to show it.

"So." She said, repeating what he had said. He chuckled to himself and then leaned in to kiss her. Syd pulled his head down and it connected with her knee, causing him to become instantly unconcious. She dropped the false smile and sneered at the guard who was now sprawled on the floor. Then she took the uniform from the top of the locker and put it on. In one of the lockers she also found a passs that would be helpful. She clipped it to her uniform and strolled out of the lounge building.

Sydney walked over to the building that contained the plane. There were one or two other people walking over there and she joined them, blending in. The group stopped outside the building, each person pressing their identity cards up against a small screen. Then a small door opened and this person was let it. Syd was the last person to enter. She pressed the card to the screen and it beeped twice. She froze, waiting for armed guards to come rushing at her but nothing happened. The door made a clicking sound and swung open. Relieved, she walked through it into a brightly lit room. The plane stood in the centre of it, with people dressed like her swarming all over it. Looking up, Syd saw a control room where a man in a suit was looking down. He caught her eye for a moment, winked and then turned away.

"What is with everyone in this place?" Syd though to herself. She moved into a quiet corner and then made contact with Marshall.

"Marshall. Can you see the image?" Syd asked, trying not to make it too obvious that she was talking. Before the mission Marshall had given Syd a small badge. This badge transmitted the images Syd saw to Marshalls computer so he could tell her where the control panel in the plane was and how to disarm it. "Marshall?"

"WOW. Syd, wow, do you see this? This is advanced stuff, I could take lessons from these guys, although, you know...evil geniuses and...I wouldn't...want to take lessons from them........I could become evil." Marshall said in his usual stuttering tone. Syd sighed. "Right. Ok. Can you see the bald man, leaning close to the plane? If you look closely you can see the panel. That is where you disarm the weapon. You need to get him out of the way."

"Easier said than done." She muttered walking over to the bald man. She climbed up beside him and peered at the panel.

"What do you want?" He spat, not turning to look at her.

"It's time for your break. I'll work on this now." She said. The man snorted.

"You? You work on this? Don't make me laugh. I am the only person who works with this." He turned to Syd and looked her up and down. "You are a girl."

"Yeah, I noticed that." Syd replied coldly. He sneered at her.

"No girl works on something like this." Syd was beginning to get annoyed.

"Clearly you haven't met me. Mr Sark assigned me to this. I'm sure if you ring him then he will tell you." The man froze at the mention of Sark.

"Mr Sark? He told you to work on this?" He asked, his voice shaky and frightened.

"Yeah. I don't think he would be too pleased if he could see you holding up his work." The man's eye went wide and he jumped down the steps, away from the plane. "He really doesn't like Sark." Syd looked at the panel. Lights were flashing at her, and the whole thing was a mess of wires.

"Marshall. What do I do?" She asked, peering closer.

"Ok, well it's simple. You see the computer screen that says armed? Well, press the blue button to the lower left of that and it is disarmed." Syd did as she was told. The screen went blank and then flashed, DISARMED. "Ok, now just pull out the wires at random, to make sure no one can rearm this thing. It also wouldn't hurt to you know, go mental on it. Hack it to bits." Syd began pulling out the wires and then she picked up a wrench and smashed the screen over and over. Happy that the job was done Syd climbed down from the plane and walked out of the building. But at the door she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"Stop. Now." A voice said behind her. Sydney's heart sank. This was it. It was all over.

Syd stopped and turned to face the person behind her, slowly. When she was facing the person she saw that it was the man she had seen in the control room.

"Where are you going so fast?" He said, sternly. "We didn't get to talk." His features softened and he broke into a grin.

"Here we go." Syd thought to herself. She smiled sweetly at him.

"Come with me. We can get to know each other...a little better." He took Sydney's hand and led her out of the building. Once outside Syd used all her force to spin the man round. She took hold of his arm and half pulled half pushed him into the building's wall. He crumpled to the ground and Sydney ran. She slowed down when she came closer to the entrance. The guards who she had met earlier were still there and they all bunched close together when she came closer.

"So, is it our turn?" One said, stepping forward.

"No, you have to go to that building." She said pointing to it. "There was an attack and these men are killing people." The guards all looked wide eyed at each other and then nodded. They picked up their guns and ran towards the building. Syd smiled after them and walked quietly out of the facility. She met Vaughn back on the hill where they had been before.

"Ready to go?" He asked. Syd nodded and followed him to the meeting point where a car was waiting to extract them.

Sydney stormed into the debriefing room. Dixon and Marshall were already sitting there both with grim expressions on their faces.

"Sydney..." Dixon began, his voice full of regret.

"You had no right to send me in there. I was briefed for a completely different mission, I knew nothing about what I was meant to be doing there. Marshall had to talk me through everything." She paused for a moment. "There was no team to disarm the weapon was there?" Dixon shook his head slowly.

"But you have to understand, you are the best agent the CIA has, we couldn't trust a team to go in there and it would have looked too suspicious sending 10 men in. Would you have even done it if I had told you before?" Sydney thought about that.

"Yes." She said slowly. "If I had known exactly what I was meant to do, and if I was sure that I was safe then I would have done it. Why didn't you tell me before?" At that moment Jack walked in. He glared at Dixon for a moment and then focuesd on Sydney.

"Sydney, are you alright? I heard about what happened." Sydney nodded and turned back to Dixon. It was then that she noticed his left eye was swollen and bruised.

"Dad, you didn't...." She trailed off. Jack bowed his head.

"You could have died."

"But I didn't." Sydney retorted. Then Dixon spoke.

"Sydney I am truly sorry." He said softly. Syd nodded, accepting his apology.

"Well, the weapon is disarmed and I don't think anyone can really re arm it cos I smashed it up some. I guess we're safe."

"Thank you Sydney." Dixon said. Syd smiled slowly, she knew that he was in a hard position being the director of the CIA, she understood what he had had to do. Jack was still angry and scowled at Dixon.

"Well if you are alright...I'll be going then." Jack left abruptley. Sydney stood for a moment, not knowing what to say. Then she nodded at Dixon and followed her father.

As Sydney pulled into her driveway she saw Vaughn's car parked there. He was not inside the car and when she checked, the spare key was missing from it's place inbedded in the soil of the flower pot next to the door. She twisted the door handle and walked in.

"Vaughn?" She called out. The lights were all turned off and there was no sign of life. She felt for the lightswitch and turned the main lights on, the room was covered in rose petals. She let out a small gasp. Moving into the kitchen she found a note on the work surface. One word was printed on it in a small script; bedroom. Smiling to herself she took the note with her and the rose that had lain on top of it. She walked down the dark corridor towards her bedroom where a small light was glowing. She pushed open the door and found Vaughn sitting on the side of the bed, a bottle of champagne and two glasses in his hand. Sydney's smile spread from ear to ear. She flung her arms around his kneck and kissed him lovingly.

"Surprise." He said softly, he poured two glasses of champagne and put one into Syd's hand. "To our first breaks from work." He raised the glass and Sydney clinked hers against his. They both drank deeply and then set the empty glasses down.

"When did you do all this?" Syd said, looking about the dimly lit room. Petals were scattered over the bed and over the floor. The room smelt of flowers and candles were set out everywhere. There was even music playing quietly in the background.

"When you went into work to talk to Dixon. I came straight her and sorted this out. I figured you needed something special after what you had to do today." He smiled at her, his green eyes sparkling. Syd had never felt so much love for one person. She kissed him passionately and they fell backwards onto the bed together, caught up in each other.

Lauren sat alone in the cell that she had been put in by the CIA. Now that she was alone she had time to plan what she was going to do. The CIA has confiscated her mobile and now all she had left were her clothes which she had been wearing for over a week. Nevertheless she knew that she HAD to get herself out of her prison and sheer determination would help her through all the obstacles she faced. Her mind dirfted into other thoughts, mostly about Sydney Bristow. Anger welled up inside her as she thought about the woman who had almost single handedly ruined her life. Nothing had been the same since she came back. Firstly she had lost her husband, then her job in the CIA, and now she was being hunted by the Covenant, or so she thought. Lauren kicked out at the partly glass wall to the front of her cell. Immediately guards came rushing in, their guns drawn and pointed cautiously towards her. She sneered at them and flopped onto the bed in a resigned fashion.


End file.
